At the stroke of midnight last night, 2019 ended, and 2020 has begun. In an effort to achieve 2020 vision (pun intended), one should reflect upon the past year.
Over on Instagram, they do a thing called “Top Nine” where they show the top nine posts of the year. It was interesting to me that five of the top nine of 2019 were things I posted just in the past two months. Seems that folks can’t get enough Green Eggs & Ham, and they seemed to like lots of my doodles of other people’s characters. Thankfully, they showed some love to one of my originals (dog doodles), as well as a photo of me taken by my pal Brian Joseph Ochab to promote my upcoming appearance at the first ever Bakersfield Mouse Con (a Disney fan convention happening on January 26).
Click on the image to enlarge.
Here’s hoping more fun and exciting projects come across my plate in 2020!
I really enjoyed Netflix’s Klaus film from director Sergio Pablos. Sergio was the brilliant animator behind Disney characters Tantor the elephant in Tarzan, and Dr. Doppler in Treasure Planet. Klaus has some delightful hand-drawn animation with gorgeous lighting – every frame is a beautiful illustration.
While not exactly their Santa, the day after I saw Klaus, I felt the urge to draw a beefy Santa that is clearly influenced by theirs. Inked in my sketchbook, colored in Photoshop.
At the risk of sounding monotonous with the third post in a row about emerald colored chicken orbs and porcine meat, it really was a privilege to have worked at Warner Bros. on the traditionally animated Green Eggs and Ham series that currently is streaming on Netflix. It’s encouraging to have been reading so many great comments from fans on various posts online who have been enjoying the labor our team near and far put into the show.
These were just a few of my practice drawings created to get a feel for the character of Sam I Am when I started on the show back in 2018. It was such a treat to get to draw for an adaptation of my favorite Dr. Seuss book, and I’m now a hero to my nephews and niece.
I did not draw them in a house, I did not draw them with a mouse.
One exciting thing that helps the Green Eggs & Ham show leap from the screen is the magnificent music of composer David Newman, a veteran composer of many movie scores over the years (Galaxy Quest, The Sandlot, Hoffa, Ice Age, etc.). I had the pleasure of watching him work his magic with an orchestra in the recording studio one day, and afterwards felt the urge to Seussify him.
David Newman is quite musical, Making melodies that are Seussical.
Later in the year, I snapped this second image of David onstage at The Hollywood Bowl where he conducted a concert of John Williams’ music. Film music royalty.
That night, John Williams spoke of his friendship with David’s father, Alfred Newman, the great composer and former head of music for 20th Century Fox (he wrote the fanfare in front of all Fox movies!)
Today is Jim Henson’s birthday. He would have been 83. Never had a chance to meet him, but sure have been appreciative of his imagination.
I actually tried getting work at the Jim Henson Company after graduating from university, but alas, never did get hired. At least it led to a visit at the Henson brownstone offices in Manhattan that no longer exist. What a thrill to a kid ready to take on the world, however, my path eventually led to a career in animation instead of puppets.
This ink drawing was worked up in my sketchbook, then scanned and colored in Photoshop.
No actual rainbows were harmed in the creation of this illustration.
By the way, back in June during my travels on the east coast of the United States, my mother and I stopped by the campus of the University of Maryland, Jim Henson’s alma mater, where we posed for a picture with him.
When I was working on the Green Eggs and Ham show at Warner Bros., I was chatting with some colleagues who shared an office with each other. Lorenzo Martinez was joking that he and Sarah Arakaki were Batman and Robin, to which Sarah commented that she was Batman in that equation.
I thought that image seemed funny in my head, especially since Sarah is a bit short, and Lorenzo is overly tall. So, when I had a moment, I decided to turn that into a real image. This was the result.
The Dark Knight and Boy Wonder instilling fear in the hearts of their enemies.
Hopefully you’ll find the image funny on its own merit since you all probably don’t know Lorenzo or Sarah. What you should know about them, though, is that they are brilliant animation layout artists. Those are the people who design the environments – the sets – in animation.
Lorenzo is a veteran going back to films like The Little Mermaid, and more recently was the layout supervisor for the animated sequences of Mary Poppins Returns. Sarah is new to the business with Green Eggs being her first show. She’s got a very bright future ahead of her! Together with Tyler Gentry who I worked with years ago on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, they make up the layout department on Green Eggs & Ham coming soon to a Netflix near you!
I belong to the National Cartoonists Society, and specifically am a part of the Los Angeles Chapter called NCS LA. Affectionately, our chapter is known as The Order of Cornelius.
Cornelius is a bear who reportedly saved the life of California cartoonist George Herriman from hurtling over a cliff on a runaway toboggan. He later saved the lives of several other cartoonists, too, and thus earned his place as the patron saint of NCS LA after his passing. He’s now remembered as an angel bear who continues to look after the well-being of LA cartoonists.
Under the leadership of The New Yorker Magazine cartoonist Matt Diffee, NCS LA began giving annual awards for career achievement and for volunteerism to our members. We began giving the awards without actually having the physical awards to give. After a couple of years, I was tasked with designing The Cornelius Award (the one for volunteerism), while Diffee and Spencer Ramsey set about designing The Dingy (given for career achievement).
I looked to classic Art Deco medal designs of yesteryear to attempt to give The Corny an aged provenance of sorts. Cornelius was depicted in a more realistic manner, with his stylized angel wings and halo. Add a few lightning bolt accents, and we had our design!
The next step was getting the medals made, which proved to be challenging. One of our members, Drew Aquilina, found a Los Angeles based maker of custom medals, so I reached out to them only to discover that while they had an LA office, they were actually based in the Philippines which is where the sales representative was.
There was much back and forth via e-mail to make sure the specifics of the design were met with their production people, and then the order was placed. The medals turned out beautifully! They measure a large three inches across, and came with a plaid ribbon of our design long enough so this can hang around the recipient’s neck.
Of course, you have to take a look at The Dingy Award, too! Named after NCS LA founder Ding Daniels, it is given once a year to the member who has T.I.U.A.N. – Taken It Up A Notch – in their career. Diffee and Ramsey did a nice job on this one, too.
Earlier this summer after both medals were completed, NCS LA had a special medal ceremony to give the medals to the six people who had earned them over the past few years. The three recipients of The Dingy were children’s book illustrator Marla Frazee, cartoonist of the online comic BaconLonnie Millsap, and former MAD Magazine editor-in-chief Bill Morrison.
The Corny was given to Spencer Ramsey, Frank Hansen, and as a big surprise, yours truly. It felt kind of weird to be given the medal I designed, but it’s neat to have one.
Members of the Order of Cornelius the evening of our medal ceremony from L to R: Steve Greenberg, Carlos Saldana, Spencer Ramsey, Tony Carrillo, Frank Hansen, yours truly, portrait of founder Ding Daniels, Matt Diffee, Lonnie Millsap, John Duncan, Marla Frazee, Kevin Segall, and Daryl Cagle.
Earlier this year, I created this piece for the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, otherwise known as The Order of Cornelius (OOC). It features the mascot of the OOC, Cornelius the Bear, who we hold in VERY high regard.
Bears really shouldn’t smoke.
I’ll have more to say about the OOC in my next post when I show you a medallion I designed for them, but for now, if you are interested, I encourage you to visit the OOC’s website by CLICKING HERE!
