Category: Art: Watercolor

Green Eggs & Ham

Have any of you Netflix subscribers been able to catch any of the new Green Eggs & Ham show that unfurled last Friday? Did you like Green Eggs & Ham? Would you, could you watch them in a house? How about watching with a mouse?

Perhaps I haven’t talked much about it here on the ol’ blog, but I spent the last half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 working at Warner Bros. Animation on this terrific series in the story department! It was a blast to be able to work on an adaptation of my favorite Dr. Seuss book from when I was a kid.

I can’t show any of my actual work on the show since what I worked on hasn’t been released yet, but here’s a quick little ink & watercolor piece I did as a prize for our GEAH crew’s Friday night game night. Each Friday night after work, those who could would stick around for a game. One night I decided to contribute a mystery prize in an envelope for whoever the winner would be that night. It happened to go to Reem Aliadeeb, our show’s character designer!

Sam I Am in all of his green hamminess.
Categories
Art: Animation Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Illustrations

Jack Davis Exhibit

My friend James Martin teaches at the Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, where they are currently having an exhibition of work by a cartooning hero of mine, Jack Davis.

Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture shows a variety of Jack’s work over a 60+ year career and will be on display until December 6. What James alerted me to, is that an illustration I did as a gift for Jack thirteen years ago happens to also be in the exhibit!

 

I was from the North, Jack Davis was from the South, yet we were still friends.

 

If I’m not mistaken, it looks like the drawing to the left of mine could be an original Mort Drucker sketch, and on the right might be a Dan Piraro. Yikes! Heavy company to be in.

Let that be a lesson to you, kids – when you do a doodle for a friend, make sure it is the best doodle you can possibly do. It just might end up in a museum!

By the way, HERE is a very complimentary review by Marty Fugate in the Herald Tribune newspaper that shows some of Jack’s work in the show. If you are in the vicinity of Sarasota, Florida, get out to see this show!!!

Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Caricature Cartoons Disney Illustrations Self Portrait

Heffalumps and Roozles

Back in 2009, I did a little series of watercolor paintings of characters I had become familiar with having worked on three seasons of the My Friends Tigger & Pooh television show.

Lumpy the heffalump, introduced in The Heffalump Movie, was a sweet character and was friends with Roo. The paintings weren’t done for anything official for Disney – just something on my own.

I’ve enjoyed drawing the Pooh characters ever since that show, and still get requests from kids from time to time.

 

A heffalump and Roozle are very confusal.
Categories
Animals Art: Animation Art: Colored Pencil Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Disney Illustrations

Go Fish

My doctor retired last month. After all the years of his great care, thought I’d do a little drawing for him to mark the occasion (name redacted for privacy sake). He deserves the time away, but man, I’m not looking forward to having to seek out a replacement for him. He was one of the good ones.

 

Looks like the fish are biting today.
Categories
Animals Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Art: Watercolor Cartoons Disney Illustrations

Drawn & Quoted: Bears & the Bees

“Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.“

– Yann Martel (1963 – present)

 

Bears do love their honey. I love doing drawings in my toned tan paper sketchbook. Win-win.
Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Cartoons Character Designs Drawn & Quoted Illustrations Random Doodles Sketchbook

Paddington 2 – Part 4

Here is the final illustration I created for an unreleased special feature for the Paddington 2 Blu-ray, and it just so happens to be my favorite of the project.

This piece reminds me of an old Sunday school song I used to sing as a little kid “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world…” which was itself inspired by Matthew 19:14 in the Bible, “but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.'” This is kind of appropriate considering that in just this past week was Good Friday and Easter, the time of year traditionally honored by Christians as the day Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for mankind, and lived again for us to tell about it.

 

Note to self: don’t put the earth in the dryer after washing, lest it shrink.

 

Hope that you have enjoyed seeing, this past week, my previously unrevealed set of drawings created for the Paddington 2 project. My sincere thanks to Constantine Nasr, the producer of those special features, for inviting me to be a part of it. It was a great project of which to be a part.

Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Character Designs Illustrations

Romeo & Juliet (part deux)

Yesterday I shared with you a Valentine’s Day card I made this year. Perhaps you might like to see parts of the art up close and personal, kind of like that kiss was about to be?

 

Hope they each had a breath mint first.

 

For those curious, the art was created in mixed media fashion. Which media was mixed? It is primarily a traditional watercolor painting, some gouache was used, colored pencils, and then there are some touches in Photoshop.

 

Cloth close-up. Cloth and possible toe fungus.

 

I did try my best to really get some interesting lighting into the art. So often it feels as though the lighting in my work is more even, without much drama. This image just needed to have aspects of moonlight coming from one direction, and candle/lantern light coming from within the palace. Hopefully the cool light and the warm light is believable and interesting.

 

Vines are the garnish on this gourmet dish.

 

Well, there you go. A few close-up shots of how this illustration looked to me while I was working on it. Often a lot goes into a piece like this, but whether a lot or a little bit of work, hopefully the art is always entertaining to YOU!

Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Painting Art: Photoshop Art: Watercolor Character Designs Illustrations

Romeo & Juliet

Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!

I made my own Valentine’s card this year featuring Romeo & Juliet, but with a twist in this classic tale of love….

 

True love’s kiss?

 

Lest you miss the joke, it’s important to know that this piece is firmly rooted in William Shakespeare’s tale of Romeo & Juliet – teenagers so deeply in love with one another that they gave up their lives for each other. But, what if Juliet was two-timing on Romeo, and really didn’t love him at all? She’d probably marry the next sap right after breaking Romeo’s heart.

Well, it’s funnier if the joke doesn’t have to be explained.

Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Painting Art: Photoshop Art: Watercolor Character Designs Illustrations