“When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.”
– Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
The key, boys and girls, is to moisturize.
Feeling saggy? Feeling baggy? Perhaps you can relate to this sketch I whipped up last night. There was no rhyme or reason for it – just felt like drawing an elephant in the ol’ sketchbook, and happened to find a great elephant quote from Abraham Lincoln this morning. Though, I’m not quite sure what kind of experience Lincoln had with elephants – outside of the Republican party, that is.
While I know that it has been really hot across the United States these past few months, Southern California has had one of the most mild, beautiful summers in all the years I’ve lived here – until this week. This has been a sweltering week in Los Angeles, so of course, as that great leader of jurisprudence known as “Murphy” would have it, my air conditioning ceased to condition my air.
In sitting here waiting for the arrival of the repair men, I was thumbing through my sketchbook and came across this polar bear sketch drawn earlier this year. Even though he came from my own pencil, I couldn’t help but wonder if his smug little expression was coming from the fact that he was enjoying crisp, cool temperatures while I most definitely was not. He just stood there mocking me.
A polar bear enjoying the cool degrees of his summer. Either that or he’s listening to Barry Manilow. Hard to tell, really.
So, now the repair men have come and performed their patriotic duty. My air is working just in time to keep the paint from peeling off the walls, and I’m standing in front of my vent with a satisfied stance not unlike my fuzzy friend above.
Over the course of what feels like a very short career despite having been a member of the full-time creative field for 16 years, have drawn in many styles to please many clients. That is what a freelance illustrator/cartoonist does. You always bring a little of yourself to the table, but if somebody needs Yogi Bear, they don’t want him to look like Mickey Mouse. You need to work cohesively with the other players. I get that.
Over the past number of years, the animation business has adopted the philosophy that if an artist’s portfolio does not look like their product, the artist must not be able to draw their characters. And if they think there is a glimmer of hope in the pencil wielder, the studio will require a remunerationless drawing test that usually is a good week’s worth of work. In essence, they make the artists try out for the team.
Perhaps these ideas came along because artists would lie on their resumès, or maybe it’s because hiring is usually handled by human resource agents that don’t truly understand the drawing process. I don’t say this as a slam on them by any means. With budgets being slashed, with many animation jobs leaving our borders, and with a local workforce greater than the amount of available jobs, companies want to know if you can draw what they need. I just wonder why, when a resumè has legitimate claims of having drawn things as diverse as characters for Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros., Hanna Barbera, Mercer Mayer, Fisher-Price, and superheroes that one would assume that artist cannot draw new things? Just last year I was turned down for a job with the stated reason that they didn’t think I could draw their characters.
So, that being said, when I apply for a new job in animation, I try to find out a little of the style of a show and see if I can quickly add some drawings to my portfolio that would key the bosses to the fact that I can draw their characters. They need to know that I can play ball with them.
The following is an example of just that. You’ll notice that this baseball boy is not exactly like the style of my other personal work here on the blog. He was created as a part of my portfolio customized for a job application earlier this year. Started as a rough sketch in my sketchbook, he then became an inked drawing with some color added in Photoshop for good measure. I didn’t get that job, but I did have fun trying to broaden my horizons a bit.
This baseball boy is a rough sketch taken directly from the pages of my sketchbook.And here’s a more finished look at the sketch. Click on the image to see it larger!
Ironically, despite what I wrote above, I didn’t have to “try out” for a character design position I currently hold. Based on the reputation of my past work, I am grateful to be helping bring Zhu Zhu Pets toys to life in the animated realm. Sometimes the resumè and a good pitch from colleagues alone can help get the game play going. Then you have to step up to the plate and prove you deserve to be swinging the bat.
Sometimes you just gotta get the inner redneck out of you. Some let him loose by slipping into a drawl, others by wearing a trucker hat, and others by wearing plaid and suspenders. I get him out with a pen, and name him Delbert.
Good ol’ Delbert keeping up with where the fish are biting via his video phone.
I’m not sure exactly why I drew Delbert with a mobile phone when I haven’t even leapt off that technological precipice quite yet. When it comes down to it, I suppose I just don’t like being that accessible to folks. What is accessible to me every day, however, is my collection of plaid shirts. So I’m already halfway to becoming Delbert in real life!
At any rate, enjoy this little submission from my sketchbook of random musings.
The other night as I was watching television, I grabbed my sketchbook and just started doodling. I suppose that I wasn’t really paying too much attention to what was on the screen because I started to draw Vikings. There aren’t too many Viking TV shows on these days unless Law & Order sneaked in a new version of their show – Law & Order: The Norse Files. However, about a month ago I saw the brilliant Dreamworks animated movie How To Train Your Dragon, so maybe some thoughts of that lingered in my brain. This one guy emerged from my pencil, and begged to be drawn a little more formally. Over to the drafting table we went where he was fully realized.
But after all that – for some reason, all I could think of while doing the final drawing was Elmer Fudd singing “spear and magic helmet.”
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973)
As I continue to add creations to my sketchbook, various beasts and creatures continue to come forth. This dragon oozed out of my pencil unexpectedly with that mean, hungry and determined expression. Decided the sweet little bird would be the focus of his attention. It’s never any fun being the prey. All you can hope for is to choke the aggressor.
Welcome to this, the final day of MONSTER MONTH here on the blog. It has been a fun 31 days of monsters, and I thought I’d cap it off with a doozy for Halloween!
If you are at all familiar with the story of Frankenstein, you would know that the monster has a fear of fire. But what truly caused that fear? I mean, at some point, he must have been okay with it, right? Something had to set him off. Oh, there may be some paltry explanation in the pages of Mary Shelley’s tome, but I believe that the true moment when the monster’s fear was born came in the laboratory one fateful day.
I suppose that along with fire, one might fear Dr. Frankenstein after this incident. Igor only approaches him from the front these days.
Thank you for joining me this month. I had a blast drawing MONSTERS of all shapes and sizes. If you enjoyed it as much as I did, feel free to leave a comment here on the blog!
