I was going through some of my old art the other day, and came across this small Donald Duck watercolor/colored pencil piece I did just for fun a few years back. It was painted around the time I was finishing up my time working on two seasons of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I LOVED drawing those classic Disney characters for the time I was given, and still will often doodle Mickey and the gang on scratch paper while talking on the phone.
Did you know that long before I worked on Donald for animation, I wrote a six-page Donald Duck story for Disney comics, too? I talk about that a little bit on my website. You can check that out by CLICKING HERE!
At any rate, enjoy this Donald Duck piece from the bygone year of 2009.
Donald’s stripes and lack of buttons on his sailor suit are depicted as he appeared on “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
One of my favorite things to do is to go play golf. But just so that I don’t get tired of it, I only do it once, maybe twice a year. I played a few weeks ago with fellow animation buddy Drew Graybeal, and it was just a great five hours of my Saturday. Yeah, five hours. You golfers know that’s a looooong game. It was a crowded course unfortunately, and you had to wait on every hole.
They actually paired us up with another guy of whom I requested, “Please be patient with me. I only get out a couple of times a year, so I’m likely to be rusty.” He proceeded to interpret that as “this guy is a beginner.” He kept giving me golf tips on every hole, and trying to encourage me. Granted, I was hitting 8s and 9s for about the first third of the game, but I was just getting warmed up.
When I started hitting 5s and 6s, his comments changed to be like “yeah, you’re starting to get it!” Then I hit a few pars, almost got a birdie, and sunk a 20 foot putt. The rest of the game he kept saying incredulously “You are NOT a beginner.” I never did say I was a beginner, but it was at that moment that I regretted not being a betting man. I could have made some coin off that game! I ended with a 113 which isn’t great, but it’s not bad for only playing golf about twice a year.
So, anyway, I say all that to accompany this digital painting I did this week just for fun of a senior golfer. I think any serious golfer must play with a crazy pair of pants. Tragically, my own wardrobe lacks a pair like that. If not anything else, they serve as a distraction to your opponents. Just wear them within sight of your pals as they are driving.
It’s always amazing to watch the old guys on the course limp up to the ball, then smack it straight and true with no hesitation.
There’s nothing quite like an ocean breeze, don’t you think?
Can you call it “breaking wind” while it is still under water, or technically only when the bubbles reach the surface?
And with that little joke, ladies and gentlemen, we have truly reached THE END of this year’s MONSTER MONTH selections. Thank you so much for coming each day to see what has kept me amused at my drawing desk!
By the way, if you haven’t noticed, on the homepage of my blog there is a list of categories, one of which is MONSTERS! Feel free to come back anytime and click on that to have quick access to all the monsters on my blog, including the MONSTER MONTH drawings from years past!
Come back to visit regularly! I tend to post something new, monster or non-monster, at least once a week!
Every now and then I pick up my sketchbook without an inkling of what is about to come out of my hand. Often this approach is helpful to get some bad drawings out to make way for the good ones. A few weeks ago I was having one such sketch session, and the page was just full of lousy drawings. There was only a small space still untouched at the bottom of the page when the head of this creature just appeared!
Even though it was just a head sketch, almost immediately I could clearly imagine this creature’s whole body, and just had to get it onto paper! I grabbed a large 24″x18″ piece of textured paper and went to town! So, kids, start a sketchbook and doodle bad drawings every chance you get so you can recognize the good ones when they come!
This gentle soul seems to have a melancholy demeanor, likely weary from the weight of life’s responsibilities accumulated over several centuries of living. (Click on image to see it larger.)
Come back on Monday – HALLOWEEN – to see the grand finale for 2011’s MONSTER MONTH!!!
Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to be going right? You wake up to a jack hammer outside your home, spill coffee on your freshly pressed cape during breakfast, head on out to work and you step in a deep puddle, and then horror of horrors, the little girl you are trying to scare actually fights back. That’s when you have to swallow your pride and implement “Plan B” by stealing her little pink tricycle and just peddling out of there as fast as you can.
Get some rest. Tomorrow is another day.
When nothing goes right, you just gotta flee from danger even if it means the tricycle you stole sports handlebar streamers. (Click on image to see those streamers larger.)
I hear that tomorrow’s monster promises to be truly abominable. We’ll see.
My good friend and neighbor Brian Joseph Ochab formed his own production company called Wonder Motion Studios. Under this banner, he is developing some wonderful family entertainment. In fact, one of the projects he is working on is TIM, the Tim Burton inspired animated short film that I am co-producing with him. (CLICK HERE if you’d like to be up to speed with that project!)
In starting Wonder Motion Studios, Brian wanted a fun logo to get across the whimsy and imagination his projects have. He enjoyed my creatures from previous Monster Months, and wanted me to create one for him. After a few different ideas, we settled down with this purple balloon-loving mascot onto which Brian later incorporated his typeface.
He may technically be a yellow-bellied cyclops, but I dare you to be the one to tell him that.
Come back again tomorrow to see a monster entrepreneur at work!
In the recently released Zhu Zhu Pets DVD, The Quest for Zhu, there are all manner of beasties ready to threaten the four hamster heroes Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak, Num Nums and Chunk. One such danger is a pack of saber-tooth tigers called Zhurassic Zhus.
Today I thought I’d share with you two versions of these growly striped kitties. Like a nature photographer, though remaining at my much safer desk, I was tasked with capturing the behavior of these creatures for inspiration to those that followed me in the creative pipeline. In our story, these fellas reside in the snowy mountain cliffs. Putting myself in the position of the hamsters, I imagined that the most frightening introduction I could have to this life-ending threat would be to perch them above on a cliff looking hungrily down while being framed by the blinding sun. So, I penciled out the pose, scanned it in and added some dramatic flare in Photoshop by including shadows.
Now THIS is something that could just ruin your whole mountain hike. (Click on image to see it larger.)
Usually when I did these kinds of character development drawings, they would be passed along down the production line just as you see it. This time, however, the director took a shine to the drama in this piece, so he asked my buddy Tom Cain to paint it in color as I moved on to do other drawings. I really loved how Tom handled the whole scene so I thought I’d share with you his terrific version of these snarling, drooling hamster nightmares.
Here is Tom Cain’s great Photoshop rendition of my Zhurassic Zhu drawing. (Click on image to see it larger.)
Come back tomorrow to see if you scream, if I scream, if monsters scream for ice cream!
About a month or so ago I went to see the amazing exhibit of Tim Burton’s personal artwork at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and came home totally jazzed about drawing and painting weird creatures for MONSTER MONTH.
A common motif in Tim’s work seemed to be stripes and swirls, and for days after soaking up all that creativity, I was bursting to do a piece of my own. So, after a quick sketch in my sketchbook, this little ugly bug character came flowing out. I quickly redrew it quite large (24″x18″), inked it with my brush pen, and then watercolored that sucker with as much energy as I could put into it.
I really loved how it turned out – it feels really spontaneous for me, which is good. So often in my daily job I am being very analytical when drawing characters because they are for the mechanical CG animation world. I shoved all those rules aside and just had fun. I hope you enjoy it, too.
He may be an ugly bug, but don’t think of a tiny gnat – think Mothra. Then imagine how big that bug zapper would have to be. Oog. (Click on image to see it even larger.)
Since I have been helping to develop a Burton-themed short animated film this past year, it was fun getting my Tim Burton on again. If you’d like to see more of my art inspired by Tim Burton, CLICK HERE. And if you are in the Los Angeles area, be sure to check out the Burton show at LACMA. It will be there until October 31.
