The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyDay four in this week’s Sketch Challenge brings with it the wrath and menace of a crazed cat behind the controls of a mouse zapping spaceship, enough to send a chill through the spine of Buck Rogers himself!
Hopefully you are also following the sketch posts this week by my challenger Andy Heckathorne, a fantastic illustrator and designer. If not, pop on over to his Twitter account to see what my competition is up to!
My pal, Andy Heckathorne, challenged me to draw. Yes, I draw every day, but specifically he challenged me to a sketch-off. At first, he wanted it to be every day until we die. Thinking that perhaps the sketching and posting daily is what would kill me, I said, “no.” So, he compromised and suggested we do it for five days. I agreed.
The rules of the game are that each sketch can take only a maximum of 30 minutes. I did not specifically time these, but am pretty sure I am close to that deadline each day this week. No stipulation was made as to drawing materials, so let the games begin.
Since Andy’s challenge reminded me of an old western duel, my first thought immediately went to cowboys. However, instead of dueling with guns, their duel is between who has the biggest belt buckle. Enjoy!
Come to think of it, did you know that I was on Twitter, too?! Click here to follow me!
Some cats sit all alone in the moonlight, and can smile at the old days; they were beautiful then and remember a time they knew what happiness was, and they let the memory live again.* Other cats just like making new memories such as climbing on birthday cakes.
This was a little birthday piece I did for a good friend who has three cats. I may have made up their color schemes, though. Unless these are what Jellicle cats really look like, then the colors were very specific and intentional.
*Yes, those are lyrics borrowed from the song Memory in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS.
My friends, the wonder twins Tom & Tony Bancroft, have been doing a series of podcasts over recent months that deal with art, comics, animation, and all of the above! Often they interview fascinating colleagues like Aaron Blaise, Don Hahn, and most recently – Glen Keane!
First, Tony & Tom are terrific cartoonists & animation guys themselves. Both worked at Disney for many years where they were animators on films like Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Mulan, Emperor’s New Groove, and Brother Bear to name a few. Tony was even the co-director of Mulan. While they live on opposite coasts today, the Bancrofts utilize the wonders of technology to create their various podcasts.
Glen Keane is regarded by many to be the greatest animator working in the business today. His career has included bringing to life many Disney favorites such as Arial, the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan, John Silver, and more recently was the driving force behind Disney’s Tangled. His latest effort is the glorious short called Duet that played theatrically, but also has an interactive version for Motorola phones.
I encourage you to listen to the approximately hour long interview where the Bancrofts talk a bit about Glen’s career, and talk to Glen about some real concepts, philosophies about the approach to animation and storytelling. Oh, and towards the end, they ask Glen a goofball question of mine. Just click on the image above to go to the podcast! And down below, please watch Glen’s Duet if you have not already seen it!
Matthew 7:5 – Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. (KJV)
We’re gonna need a bigger can of bug spray for this one. Happy Monday.
A few weeks ago some friends had me over for a dinner of ribs with good cartoonist company. I’m not sure exactly why this strange image came to mind, because there were actually no cows there eating themselves, and as far as I know, I was not inadvertently eating my own ribs. It just tickled my funny bone (and no, we didn’t eat any of those, either).
Together with a terrific committee of fellow cartoonists and writers at CAPS (the Comic Art Professional Society) in Burbank, CA, I have been busy helping put together a benefit auction and book (to be published in July by Dark Horse Comics) all to help our cartoonist brother Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo) with medical bills surrounding the care of his sweet wife, Sharon. Today, after months of planning & organizing, we released the official press release explaining the details of what promises to be an AMAZING sale! I even created a special painting just for this that I’ll post here closer to when it will be sold.
Read on and share in our excitement!
CAPS TO LAUNCH ART AUCTION FEATURING ORIGINAL WORKS BY MATT GROENING, JACK DAVIS, MIKE MIGNOLA, J. SCOTT CAMPBELL, ADAM HUGHES AND HUNDREDS MORE TO BENEFIT FELLOW CARTOONIST STAN SAKAI AND FAMILY
On Thursday, March 6, 2014, Southern California’s CAPS, the Comic Art Professional Society, will launch an ongoing series of eBay auctions of original comic art. Its goal is to raise funds for medical care for Sharon Sakai, the wife of respected cartoonist and longtime CAPS member Stan Sakai, creator of the samurai rabbit USAGI YOJIMBO. Sharon has been battling a debilitating brain tumor for some time; after an extended hospital stay and convalescence, she is currently at home, but her condition requires 24-hour care and medicine that costs more than the Sakai’s insurance covers. 100% of the proceeds of these auctions will go directly to Stan and Sharon Sakai to help pay their ongoing medical expenses.
The CAPS auctions will be conducted through eBay.com beginning on Thursday, March 6, with a new set of auctions every following Thursday. Each auction, sold under the seller name of “CAPSauction“, will be ten days in length with twenty to forty items in each set of auctions. The donations of original artwork and collectibles (including newly created art unique to this event, vintage comic book pages, comic strips, illustrations, animation art, limited edition statues, and IDW Artist’s editions books) number over three hundred with new items arriving every day.
Contributors include: Adam Hughes, Alex Maleev, Arthur Adams, Batton Lash, Eric Powell, Jan Duursema, Jerry Ordway, Jordi Bernet, Matt Groening, Michael Allred, Mike Mignola, Paul Gulacy, Sanjuliàn, Scott Shaw!, Jim Steranko, Tim Sale, William Stout, Bill Sienkiewicz, Cameron Stewart, Dan Brereton, Daniel Parsons, Dave Gibbons, Dean Yeagle, Doug Sneyd, Dustin Nguyen, Bill Morrison, Tone Rodriguez, Sergio Aragonés, Fabio Moon, Francisco Francavilla, Gene Ha, Geof Darrow, Gilbert Hernandez, Jack Davis, James O’Barr, Kevin Eastman, Jeff Lemire, Jeff Smith, Kazu Kibuishi, Liam Sharp, Tom Richmond, Michael Jantze, Olivia, Oscar Martin, Paul Chadwick, Richard Corben, Tom Mandrake, Walter Simonson, Charles Vess, Dan Spiegle, J. Scott Campbell, Chad Frye and many more.
Many of the pieces featuring Usagi Yojimbo will appear in a new oversized hardcover book from Dark Horse, THE SAKAI PROJECT: ARTISTS CELEBRATE THIRTY YEARS OF USAGI YOJIMBO, which will be released on July 23, 2014. All proceeds from this book will go to Stan and Sharon Sakai. Much of the custom Usagi Yojimbo art created for this book will also be sold as a part of CAPS’ online auctions.
These fund-raising auctions will be promoted through ComicArtFans.com, and the CAPS – COMIC ART PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY Facebook page where you will be able to see updated information such as when certain pieces will be auctioned.