The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyIt’s always fun to travel and see new places. It’s just not always nice to appear to be obviously unfamiliar with that new place, especially when the locals look — hungry.
– (circa 5 AD – 64/67 AD)
Inked in my sketchbook, with color created in Photoshop.
* from I Corinthians 13:4-7 in the Bible
Okay, we are now into our second full week of 2021. Are you marching forward into the year with confidence, ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead? If so, be prepared to battle heffalumps and woozles!
By the way, I created this piece for a friend who recently gave birth to her first child. Nothing says “welcome to the world” like Pooh. Take that however you’d like.
2020 is finally over. It has been the big, drooling dog that nobody wants around. Here’s hoping we can dry off in 2021.
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas in what has been, to say the least, a very strange year.
My Christmas card this year takes on the coronavirus issue of today, but applied to that first Christmas long ago. The art was inspired by medieval tapestries in case you were wondering.
I’ve been making my own Christmas cards for over 25 years now, but for the first time ever, the art is completely digital this year. While I love having a physical painting when it’s all done, it just seemed for the time I had to work on this, and for wanting to paint without outlines, Photoshop was the way to go. Here’s a close-up of the wise guys…
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Disney’s comedy feast The Emperor’s New Groove directed by Mark Dindal! This film holds a special place in my heart, for it was the first big Hollywood production on which I received screen credit! To celebrate, I created a new drawing to mark the occasion!
I actually started at Disney on Mulan, and also worked on Tarzan and Fantasia 2000 before this, but back in those days, the studio didn’t give screen credit to everyone like they do now. I wasn’t a production artist on the films, but rather was considered “support staff” with my computer job.
New Groove was such an interesting journey. It started as a musical drama called Kingdom of the Sun, later changed to Kingdom in the Sun (that’s what all those songs were written for that are on the soundtrack), before changing to the comedy that folks have come to love.
If you are ever curious to know the sordid details of the production journey, Trudie Styler (Sting’s wife) made a documentary about it called The Sweatbox that while never having been released to the public other than a short Oscar qualifying run in theaters 20 years ago, it does pop up every now and then on youTube.
Hard to believe all this was twenty years ago. I feel privileged to have been able to be a part of it. Of anything I have ever worked on, this is the project that lights up the most eyes when folks hear I was involved with it.
So, celebrate with me in this special birthday for a special Disney movie!
It’s okay if your barber wants to practice for a barbershop quartet, but maybe not while giving you a shave and a haircut. (I hear those cost two bits.)
– (1929 – 1945)
