You know, lately I have been working on a lot of art that I cannot share at the moment. There are a couple of extensive projects I have going on all at once, and all of it has to be kept under wraps until it doesn’t have to be secret anymore. As a result, I have been lax in posting any new art here on the ol’ blog. So, how about something old that hasn’t seen the light of day before?
I was looking through my archives and came across this fun little character watercolor painting of Disney’s Goofy. I don’t know about you, but Goofy always puts a smile on my face. He is full of an optimistic innocence that can just make me giddy and feel good. I always have fun sketching him, and apparently one day back in 2009, I put paint to paper to create this version of the lanky one.
So enjoy, and always remember it is okay to just be goofy!
Even if you don’t know him, just smile and wave back to be safe.
HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody!!!! Now, for the next month or so, try real hard to not write 2014 on letters, checks, or other important documents. I’m still trying to stop writing 2013, but it is much easier to make a 3 look like a 5 than it is to do so to a 4, so I’ll be okay.
I had the good fortune to visit the country of Russia last year during the summer when the weather was nice. There were hot days, and there were warm days, but was reminded several times by the locals that the winters are long and cold there. I also was told that Christmas isn’t celebrated there so much as New Years is.
So, here is a little painting of the New Year’s celebration in Russia. Go nuts, guys, and dream of summer!
As we enter into the Christmas week, amidst all the hustle and bustle, keep in mind the sobering thought that God came to earth as Jesus to live among men and save those who believe from our sin. Now THAT is something to celebrate! Merry Christmas indeed!
All handmade in gouache and colored pencil in case you are curious.
This past weekend my mind wandered to a show I started working on for Disney about seven or eight years ago. It was the CG animated My Friends Tigger & Pooh. It was such a delight to draw Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Lumpy, and anyone else who came to the 100 Acre Wood during those two and a half seasons that we created their adventures. You, however, only were able to watch two of those seasons. We actually were halfway through planning the third season before the network decided that the first two were enough.
We did something in our show that seemed to polarize the Pooh fans, though. Christopher Robin was not included. Instead, we introduced a little girl named Darby to the stories. Darby was voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz when she was just a wee lass. She has gone on to bigger things working in movies with directors like Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese, but once upon a time she delivered great enthusiasm in her conversations with Pooh and Tigger.
Despite all of Darby’s cuteness and charm, fans missed Christopher Robin, including Queen Elizabeth who purportedly had an aide call the Disney Channel suggesting that Christopher Robin be returned to the Wood. Regarding the young boy’s absence, “the Queen is not amused,” was the rumor floating around the studio. So, while Darby remained, Christopher Robin did return for a few episodes, though one time the gang spent an episode calling a frog “Christopher Robin” thinking that the boy had turned into the amphibian, naturally.
Another element of this series was that Darby led Tigger and Pooh as the “Super Sleuths.” It was a fun device where something would happen, and the residents of the woods needed help solving the problem. Every episode they would don their Super Sleuth outfits, then go off to “think, think, think” in an attempt to find the answer, often causing more chaos in the process.
After my work on the show ended in 2008, I created a series of watercolor sketches (such as this one) based on the show just for the fun of it.
You know, while working on the show, my mother sent me a drawing that I did at the age of 5 of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. It was so surreal to see I had an interest in him all those years ago, and then was making a living drawing him. I tease you with that, however. Little Chad’s art is not available to share with you here at this time, but eventually it will find its way here on the ol’ blog.
My Friends Tigger & Pooh really was a delightful show, and had some really wonderful scripts by our writers led by Brian Hohlfeld and Nicole Dubuc. It was a treat working with everyone, and especially getting to see the great Jim Cummings work his magic as Pooh, Tigger, and the Beaver, Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) who was Eeyore, Ken Sansom who (though now deceased) was Rabbit for many years, Rob Paulson (famous for Pinky from Pinky & the Brain) who did a raccoon, Max Burkholder (from TV’s Parenthood) as Roo, Dee Bradley Baker who was an amazing dog (Buster), as well as even Mark Hamill (yes, Luke Skywalker himself) who did a recurring character of a turtle.
It is available on DVD. Settle down with your little ones, put on your thinking caps and watch all the charming adventures of Darby, Tigger, Pooh and the gang!
Welcome to the final selection in my 2014 Monster Month series of creepy crawlies and things that go bump in the night. As you can see, this grand finalè is autobiographical. Well, at least it is how I remember bedtime to be when I was a child.
I was that kid who would look pensively into his bedroom to make sure no monsters were peeking out of the closet or rumbling under the bed. If the coast looked clear, I would run full tilt into the room and leap onto my bed so fast that the monsters beneath had no chance to reach out and grab my ankles. Of course the mattress was off limits to them, so if I made it there safely, the monsters were powerless to attack me.
However, those monsters knew they would have their turn – a moment when I would be the most vulnerable. It was that moment in the middle of the night when one would have to get up to go to the bathroom. You wake up, and are too groggy to realize that you are sliding out of bed to go into the hall, which also means you are too groggy to think defensively. The monsters take that moment to SPRING out from the abyss beneath the box spring and munch on their midnight snack of a wailing child.
The next time your children wet their beds, don’t get angry at them. They are just protecting themselves from going down the gullet of a hungry monster. Instead, be thankful you still have your children and applaud them for their defensive thinking.
Buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy night.
Well, thank you for joining me again on this year’s monstrous journey. It was fun letting my mind wander to create these creatures. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did in drawing them. Keep coming back throughout the year to see what other goodies I unleash, and feel free to click on the Monsters category on my blog homepage to see what beasties you may have missed in the past!
While he is small, this is NOT Tiny Tim. This particular Tim was a piece I created a few years back when I was trying to get a short cartoon off the ground with my friend Brian Joseph Ochab. Narrated by Sir Christopher Lee, it was going to be a magnificent stop-motion tribute parody of Tim Burton’s early short film for Disney called “Vincent”. Through various efforts to get it off the ground, our “Tim” did not happen, but some fun artwork was left behind. This is a piece I never shared here before.
If you would like to see more of my development art for our short and even a video of when the project was talked about on TV, CLICK HERE!
You be the one to water that tree. Not me.
Return tomorrow for our grand finale piece in this year’s MONSTER MONTH!
We are down to our last three monster posts for the month, and it’s about time we classed up the joint.
Not all monsters are, well . . . monsters. While some roam the countryside making mayhem wherever they please, others are of an upper crust upbringing and behave in a quite dignified manner. They abhor the besmirching, (yes, I said BESMIRCHING) of the monster species by the uncouth antics of a few.
So, without further ado, may I present monsters who enjoy some rarefied air…
Thankfully, this is not a musical and they won’t break into song. Whether classy or not, all monsters are tone deaf.
Tomorrow is a Throwback Thursday offering – a piece from a project from a couple of years ago.
During last year’s Monster Month, I introduced you to my neighbors, the monsters who live above me. (If you missed that post, CLICK HEREfor some context!) While their noise levels have lessened slightly by a decibel over the past year, they recently unleashed a torrent of audio pollution upon their unsuspecting neighbors that tops anything they were guilty of before. Yes, I speak of the event known as “the slumber party.”
When parents open themselves up to host an overnight gathering of little female monsters from all over town in their home, they know that it means very little sleep for themselves. This is fine for them to do when they own a house (so long as they keep the windows closed), but when one shares walls and floors with other people who are not celebrating the occasion with them, the word “inconsiderate” is not strong enough.
I learned something that day – little girls are highly capable of sustained energy. For four hours, one could clearly hear banging, thumping, squealing, growling (yes, growling), yelling, singing, loud music, and probably the slurping from a fresh kill. In my home, pictures were tilting, ceiling fans falling, cracks forming, book shelves twisting, glasses shattering, and nerves were rattling.
There is nothing like your own private four hour earthquake. Good times.
Once the trembles subsided that night,I went to bed. Somehow going to bed late does not mean little monsters sleep in late. Right at the crack of dawn the walls started cracking again. There was no escaping it – no matter where you went in my home you were assaulted by the continued revelry from above – even in what is usually the quiet sanctuary of the bathroom. Truly monstrous indeed.
So, if you live in an apartment, please be kind to your neighbors and figure out an appropriate way to celebrate your little monsters away from disturbing the rest of mankind.
We are in the final week of MONSTER MONTH! Enjoy and share these precious moments with your friends!
