Today is the day! The Zhu Zhu Pets movie, The Quest for Zhu, is now available for purchase! Just think of it, your kids can enjoy the fun of hamsters while you will never have to deal with any of the smell!
ANYWAY, back to sharing some art with you. Today’s art created for the end credits sequence focuses on a moment of excitement from the film when a rope bridge breaks. Why anyone crosses those things in movies is beyond me. If any of those characters had ever seen a rope bridge in a movie themselves, they would know it is going to break. But I digress….
The rope bridge breaks with Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak, Chunk (who does NOT do the Truffle Shuffle), and Num Nums hanging on for dear life. (Click on image to see it larger!)
By the way, I keep sharing THIS LINK with you that sends you to Amazon where you can order the movie. This particular edition comes with two little toys of the characters that are based on some of my early character drawings that I shared with you a few weeks back (click here to see those drawings again).
The first Zhu Zhu Pets animated movie (The Quest for Zhu) comes out tomorrow on DVD, so I thought I’d post something from the movie each day until Friday. If you haven’t been following my blog as of late, I worked primarily as a character designer on the film last year, and even spent some time with the storyboards.
As things were wrapping up on the movie, my director, Bob Doucette, approached me about utilizing my illustration skills to create some drawings to be seen on screen during the end credits. He wanted some key moments from the movie illustrated in a watercolor vignette style with room for some of the primary credits to be seen next to the art.
I spent some time laying out images for a widescreen format with room for a name or two on the “cards” as they are called. The idea was that my pencil drawings would be digitally inserted onto old parchment paper, and my pal Tom Cain would paint them in Photoshop to replicate a watercolor look. With that in mind, I drew the illustrations by hand with a black Prismacolor pencil on large 24×18 inch pads of Strathmore watercolor paper. That particular paper has a real bumpy texture to it, which would only enhance the organic feel the art needed to have.
The Zhu Zhus have to travel through a giant carrot forest during their quest for Zhu. Num Nums has a thing for carrots, and is happy to munch away! (Click on image to see it larger!)
So, this week I will be sharing with you 5 out of the 9 or 10 pieces I drew for the end credits. To see how they looked after Tom got through with them, you’ll have to pick up a copy of the DVD!
About a week and a half ago I was finally able to see the very charming new movie Winnie the Pooh created by Disney’s Feature Animation Studio. For the past few decades, new animated Pooh adventures have been ably put together by Disney’s television division, but it did my heart good to see the 100 Acres Wood gang return to the Features division with characters rendered by some of the industry’s top traditional animators such as Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, Randy Haycock, Dale Baer, Bruce Smith and Mark Henn.
I once was a part of Disney’s Television Animation group that worked on Pooh’s last outing, the My Friends Tigger & Poohshow that aired on The Disney Channel. Seeing the new film made me wistful for the characters. Pooh & company are such delightful characters to watch, and equally delightful to draw. The whole thing is a warm and fuzzy experience all the way around. Then again, maybe I’m conveniently forgetful of the challenges of working on a television show.
After finishing my work on two and a half seasons of My Friends Tigger & Pooh back in 2008, I just couldn’t stop Poohing. I spent some time doing some little watercolor pieces of the gang, the last one I posted here in April of 2009. So, in honor of the wonderful new film that families of all shapes and sizes will delight in seeing, I am posting this previously unseen watercolor & pencil piece of Winnie the Pooh with his friend Darby.
Darby with her friend Winnie the Pooh
If you or your children ever watched My Friends Tigger & Pooh, you would know that Darby was a little American girl created just for the show that would be there for all the adventures with Pooh and the gang. She was shorter and younger than Christopher Robin, and was likely conceived with the thought that she would be more relatable as an equal to the target audience of 3 to 5 year olds. I grew to really appreciate Darby, and enjoyed drawing her. She had a sweet innocence about her, and a voice to match provided by a very young Chloe Moretz in one of her early jobs.
Well, enjoy this painting of Darby with her silly old bear, and be sure to add the new Winnie the Pooh film (that includes Christopher Robin – not Darby) to your “to do” list.
A few weeks back I learned that my friends Abi and Harrison Craig were going to be leaving Los Angeles with their family and heading to Kentucky. Harrison has accepted a job working on the Ark Encounter, a Bible-based theme park that is currently in the planning stages. It is being put together by Answers in Genesis, the people known for the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.
You may remember Answers in Genesis here on my blog. Last year I told you about an illustration assignment I did for their publication, Answers Magazine(click HERE to see it again). In fact, I believe it was just recently republished in their special 5th anniversary issue.
Well, Harrison wanted a drawing of his family to commemorate this big change in their lives. His kids have only known California, and they are excited about this grand new adventure that they set out on this week. I thought I’d share with you the drawing in it’s three stages: rough sketch, final inked art, and the full-color final piece.
Working from photographs, I worked out the rough drawing with blue pencil on tracing paper. It went through a couple of alterations as per Harrison’s request, then I made a few spacing and size changes with Photoshop on the computer.
Click on image for a slight enlargement.
You may notice some details like Noah’s ark on the pennant since they are going to work on the Ark Encounter. And if you noticed a chicken in the van, that’s because while the Craigs lived here in L.A., they had a chicken coop providing them with plenty of fresh eggs daily. Originally I had thought to add some chickens chasing the van, but then the idea of leaving palms for pines came to me and seemed like a better idea. So, one chicken made it into the van, although I don’t believe the same could be said about the real life chickens. Well, leastwise not sitting next to the bellies of those boys. (cough cough)
The next step was to print the blue lines out on a piece of 14×11 paper, and using a piece of graphite paper (similar to carbon paper but using pencil lead instead) under the print, I traced the drawing down onto a nice clean sheet of Bristol board. It was on this piece of Bristol that I hand-inked the art using a Pentel brush pen (a most excellent tool I don’t know how I ever lived without) and Prismacolor black tech pens.
Click on image for a slight enlargement.
Then, it was time to color. Scanning the art into the computer, the color was added in Photoshop. I chose to keep things fairly flat, only really shading the skin tones of the people. The grass and van have some gradations, but by focusing the shading on the skin tones, it draws attention to the characters rather than to the environment.
Click on image for a slight enlargement.
Well, there you have it. The A to Cs of a cartoony caricature drawing of one swell family.
?…my oh my what a wonderful day! It’s beginning to look a little like one of them zip-ah-dee-doo-dah days! Perhaps I should explain…
Over the past seven weeks, I have mentioned and illustrated several times here on the blog that on May 10, Hotmail had turned it’s back on me. I was locked out of the e-mail account that has kept me in touch with friends, family and business associates for the past thirteen years. The digital wasteland of Hotmail rejection was quiet and lonely – I couldn’t have felt more shunned had I been wearing a big red letter on my clothing.
The reason for the lock-out? I was the victim of a drive-by hacking. Someone had violated the sanctity of my little ol’ e-mail doing who-knows-what in my name. I sat before my screen with grumpy displeasure conjuring up thoughts of random people getting bad knock-knock jokes from me, or perhaps “yo’ momma” insults that would come back to haunt me one day. I could be walking down the street at some point and a stranger would stop me on the sidewalk to say:
“Are you Chad Frye?”
“Why yes, yes I am.”
“Well, YO’ momma is sooo ugly that children shriek when she passes by!”
I would be shocked and appalled at this unnecessary act of verbal abuse from someone I had never met before, only to have the realization a few minutes later that ah yes, this must have been retaliation for something a hacker sent them in my name.
Well, my previous blog posts on this issue were not written in vain. Two weeks ago I received an e-mail from an employee of Microsoft (Hotmail’s owner) who had seen my blog and offered suggestions on how to get back in. He had nothing to do with the Hotmail division, but rather was just being a good Samaritan.
So, I followed his advice which amounted to typing up an inordinate amount of facts about my account to submit to Hotmail, then hitting “send” and going to bed. Waking the following morning and wiping the sleep from my eyes, I sat down at the computer to some stunning news. There on the screen was an e-mail from Hotmail (to an alternate account) stating that I now had permission to re-enter my account!!!
I don’t mind Mr. Bluebird being on my shoulder so long as he doesn’t leave any residue behind.
OH HAPPY DAY!!! The advice had worked and I have since returned to e-mailing everyone willy nilly like a giddy little schoolgirl! From all the e-mails I am now receiving, many people in foreign countries seem to be trying to get a hold of me to give me millions of dollars in transfers and lotteries once I provide them with my bank information. So, not only did I get my e-mail account back, I soon shall be RICH! Win-Win!
Two weeks ago at The Writer’s Guild in Beverly Hills, CA, entertainment legends Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke had a conversation on stage on the occasion of the release of Mr. Van Dyke’s new autobiography. Hosted by Writers Bloc Presents, these two legends swapped tales and memories before a rapt audience of which I was very happy to be a part.
Carl Reiner & Dick Van Dyke at the Writers Bloc Presents event on May 31, 2011.
As a child, it was quite easy to become a fan of Dick Van Dyke due to Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, only to further appreciate his talents with The Dick Van Dyke Show, and many other projects all the way up to the fairly recent Night at the Museum. When first arriving in California in 1997 to work for Disney, I was hoping that would be my ticket to finally meet Dick Van Dyke. Turns out that ticket was a wee bit elusive.
Every now and then, I would hear that friends of mine would have met him at the computer convention Siggraph that I would also be attending. Others would meet him on the Disney lot now and then, even once making a planned appearance with Julie Andrews at the renaming of one of the Disney soundstages in Ms. Andrews’ honor. Where was I? Foolishly working.
A few years ago, the charity group Actors and Others for Animals [click here to see my previous post on this group] were having their annual fundraising banquet in honor of Dick Van Dyke. Mary Willard, the very funny wife of the very funny Fred Willard, called and asked if I might be willing to draw their personal ad for the program book. How could I resist an opportunity to draw Dick, Fred and Mary? Better yet, the job came with an invitation to the event where one would certainly have the opportunity to shake the hand of the rubbery master of mirth himself!
This was my initial rough sketch to show the Willards for their input. After incorporating their comments, the final art below was produced.
After completing the whimsical ad for the Willards, my anticipations for meeting Mr. Van Dyke were growing exponentially each day. In a cruel twist of fate, those same precious anticipations were frigidly dashed yet again. The banquet was being held at the same time I was scheduled to be on the opposite side of the country on vacation with my family!
This was the final ad that Mary and Fred Willard placed in the black & white program book honoring Dick Van Dyke.
It was beginning to feel as though Dick Van Dyke was a myth that parents made up to tell their children about on cold winter nights. “Twas the night before movies, when over the lot it happens, a tall lanky sweep appears, that guy from Mary Poppins….” Seriously, I was beginning to wonder if I needed to hang a plate of tea and cakes from the ceiling at night to see if he would appear. Or at the least, add an ottoman to my office decor.
Well, Virginia, there really is a Dick Van Dyke. Last year, several years after parting from Disney myself, I was attending a private reception when I turned around and there before me was the man behind Bert, Rob Petrie, Caractacus Potts, Dr. Sloan and so many others. I finally was able to shake his hand, and thank him for being a part of filling my own head with imagination as a child that indubitably continues within me today.
Chad Frye with Dick Van Dyke at the Hollywood & Highlands complex in 2010.
Yes, I know. It’s Monday. Our fundraising effort for TIM ends in the wee early hours (12:42am to be exact) of Tuesday morning for some of you, so I thought I’d post this week’s Tuesdays with TIM column today to give you one final look at some of my art created in the development of this short film before donation time runs out. For my Pacific coast friends, our fundraising on Kickstarter ends at 9:42pm TONIGHT!
Today I offer you an insider’s look at one of my illustrations showing Timothy Todd moping about in a cemetery dressed like his hero Tim Burton. The purpose for this development piece was to show the dichotomy of Timothy’s world. On the right, you can see the world he actually lives in. It’s a bright, cheery, and very straight-laced version of suburbia not unlike that portrayed in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. The cemetery reflects the imagination of little Timothy Todd – an imagination that sees a dark, muted and skewed environment such as is common in a creepy Burton world.
Timothy Todd ponders his youth well spent, while sitting atop the grave of Vincent.
In looking at the evolution of this illustration, you can see that I hadn’t quite figured out the two worlds. In the first drawing below, both the world of his imagination and that of his real life were depicted as eerily creepy. In looking at Tim Burton animation projects, it is hard to find a straight line anywhere in the creepy scenes. I had my “eureka” moment when watching The Nightmare Before Christmas – in the “real life” world where Christmas is celebrated, straight lines abound!
This was the first drawing that made Timothy Todd’s home look too creepy.
Having a different look for the “real life” world is necessary for our story not only to create the separation between Timothy’s life and his imagination, but it also helps you as the viewer to relate. Even though Timothy’s real world is cartoony, by having it be more straight and suburban, it reminds us of the suburbia we all see around us. So, in this next drawing, the house is made a bit more boring, and the picket fence was changed to define the yard. The car was just in the way.
This second pass worked much better in showing the difference between the two worlds.
And then we get to the final watercolor & colored pencil illustration. Really, the only changes here are the addition of curly branches in the cemetery trees (which was always the plan), and a little dog in the yard. While it may be tough to tell in these scans, the tombstones all reflect past Tim Burton projects. Of course, little Timothy is sitting atop the tombstone for Vincent, the short animated film Burton made in the 1980s that we are parodying with TIM.
You can almost hear the voice of Christopher Lee, our wonderful narrator, speaking over this image.
This is your LAST day to lend us a hand by pledging some money to make TIM. To make this film become a reality, we need to hire professional puppet builders, miniature set builders, animators, and many other creative people. Stop-motion animated films require many different talents pooled together to make something special. You can click on any of the images above to go right to Kickstarter. Here is our promo video one last time:
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at these Tuesdays with TIM updates over the past two months. Even though our Kickstarter fundraising ends tonight, I’ll continue to have these updates periodically should we proceed with making TIM.
First, let me extend a hearty THANK YOU to those of you who may have given TIM a financial pledge in the past few days on Kickstarter! Over the weekend, we jumped up over $5000 in pledges!
Today I wanted to share some thoughts with you about the art that has been the face of my film from the beginning. Appropriately, it was also the first painting I did in the development of TIM. My producing partner Brian Joseph Ochab and I needed something that could very quickly say what our project was all about while invoking the spirit of the animated projects of Tim Burton.
Chad Frye at his drafting desk working on an original watercolor painting for “TIM”.
Anyone familiar with those Burton produced films can easily see in this piece the influence primarily from The Nightmare Before Christmas. While it may feel as though it is directly out of that movie, I was careful to put my own hand in it. Brian and I did sit and watch Nightmare together, and while sitting there in front of the television with a sketchbook in my lap, the following extremely rough drawing spilled forth:
1. The first rough sketch. Notice the double moons? I was undecided on how large it should be and where it should go.
Drawings such as the one above are quick brain blorts of mine. It was probably whipped out in about a minute or two just to quickly get a visual idea on paper. That image mulled in my head for a few days to the point where it felt like there might be an idea there needing to be developed further. So, I grabbed my sketchbook again and did the following drawing:
2. The second pass at this idea, still just a sketchbook drawing.
It still wasn’t quite right, but that was it! Later I sat down at my drafting table and worked on a large tight pencil drawing on tracing paper choosing a low vantage point looking up at the cemetery gate and moon, add in a couple of jack-o-lanterns, and finesse the whole scene. You can see that originally I intended to include even more jack-o-lanterns than what appeared in the final, but later while working on the painting, they just felt excessive.
3. The final actual size pencil drawing with all the details worked out.
From that final pencil drawing, I created the watercolor painting with a limited creepy color palette. That low vantage point was intentionally designed so that your eye is guided right up there to the title of the film, but also the use and placement of color and lighting was to achieve that same end result. Colored pencils were used to further tie things up and accent other details.
4. The final watercolored painting along with the tagline direct from our script.
When I go to a museum to look at paintings, I love getting my nose up as close as I can without setting off alarms so that I can really see the details of what the artist had done. With that idea in mind, here are a few close-ups of the final painting. Enjoy!
The angel statue is a direct homage to the angel that “catches” Jack Skellington in Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas.”You can really see how the colored pencil was utilized in the piece from this close-up.And a close-up view of a jack-o-lantern showing every gritty paint and pencil stroke.
TIM is still very much in need of every pledge small and large if we are to reach our goal by March 29. If we don’t reach that goal, then all those fine and generous pledges will not be able to be fulfilled. The fate of our film is in YOUR hands! Click on any of the images above to come support TIM!
