EASTER Bunnies!

Hello, again!

I thought I'd surprise everyone with another April blog post, so soon after my last?.. Just keeping everyone on their toes.. hah  Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!!

This morning, I made a visit to our local Rexall drug store to pick up a few things.. And (I guess) not surprisingly, I saw that they'd already set up a kiosk discounting all of their unsold Easter candy. My eye was immediately drawn to a "Storybook" package design for a popular brand of "Save-Your-Life" candy rolls..

This past Summer, a friend at a marketing/branding studio had asked me to brainstorm a series of action poses for this same Ad campaign, featuring their Easter Bunny character.. Which on-the-surface sounds like a pretty sweet gig. right?.. But as with most Advertising work, the client wanted all of the finished artwork yesterday?!
So, I pulled an all-nighter. And the above sketch, was one of 4 images I was able to finish..

The biggest job frustration for me though, was being forced to work with a previously-created Design for the Bunny.. In reality, there was no bonafide "model".. As it had only ever appeared/existed in one illustration they'd already commissioned. No character style bible. No rotation or turnaround, establishing proportions, etc..
Looking back on what I'd done, I realize now that I'd spent far too much time trying to work out how the rabbit was constructed, instead of solely creating drawings that were appealing to look at..

About a week or two later, I hauled out the 4 drawings.. I decided that it might be a learning experience to create my own rabbit character, from scratch.. The above doodle page, was the result.
As usual, I started out by looking at what other artists have done. The rabbit at the Top Left is a bald-faced copy of one that Disney used in their 'Tortoise & Hare' adaptation.. And the rabbit at the Bottom Left, bears a slight nod to the 'Nestlé QUIK' bunny. The tiny one looks like I may have thought MGM's "Droopy" would make a good bunny?! heh
By the time I got to the big-headed shorty in the middle of the page, I feel like I was finally onto something.. Still probably too much "Bugs Bunny" in the face features; but I like the proportions.. I'm guessing that by adding the weird lederhosen outfit, I imagined it would look more unique?

Anyways, all-told,-- it was a fun exercise.. And hopefully, I'll be better prepared to deal with any future jobs of a similar nature, that happen to fall into my lap..

That's all for now.. See ya, later!!

Kevin Klis, R.I.P.

When you're a child, you hold to this idea that only elderly people die.. But as you get older, you realize that this isn't the case. And as I rapidly approach my own half-century mark, I've begun to lose some very dear friends! One of those, was an artist named: Kevin Klis. He passed away last month at the age of 46, after a lengthy struggle with lung cancer..

Kevin was a couple years younger than me, but we found we had many similar interests. We first met in 1983, when we both attended Sheridan College's 'Classical Animation' program.. As 1st Year students, we were assigned neighboring animation desks. So it's no surprise that we became quickly acquainted. Rather than live in Oakville, we both chose to travel to-and-from college, via the GO Train. Myself, from Scarborough. And Kev from a little further east, in Pickering/Ajax. As a result, we spent most our school days together..

Initially Kevin told me that he had little interest in animated cartoons.. He was only interested in how the program would make him a better comic-book artist. Sheridan had shut down it's own 'Cartooning' program a few years earlier, much to his chagrin..
I had pretty much forgotten about comic-books, myself. But still had fond memories of the ones I once owned as a kid. Kevin was a huge Neal Adams fan! Particularly, Adams' work on 'The BATMAN' title.. Kevin knew where all the good comic-book shops were on Queen Street West. So, when we both didn't have afternoon classes (and sometimes when we did! hah), we'd both agree to make a book shopping junket, before continuing on to Oakville.
I spent most of my money re-buying all of the old comic-books I'd once owned. In addition, we both became pretty excited by the more-adult stuff published in 'HEAVY METAL' and 'EPIC' magazine..

Through some scheduling quirk in Sheridan's 1st Year programming, students were allowed to work on a Group Film. Usually a project reserved for 2nd Year students.. Kevin and I decided that we'd try to make a short film using the characters we'd seen in 'EPIC' magazine: Arthur Suydam's 'CHOLLY & FLYTRAP'..
We came up with a contrived storyline entitled: "The Repercussion"; about 'CHOLLY' shooting a few snail characters. I can recall that Kevin did an amazing Run Cycle, that I did a BG for.. Kevin had taken the time to cel-paint these cycled drawings, using a white oil-based house paint. Shooting it all toplit under the camera, it all looked very good. But in short order, the oils began seeping out of the applied paint. And Kevin found all of his cels gummed together!
I have very little of Kevin's artwork.. But here are a few of Kev's layout sketches from that project:

That's 'CHOLLY' in the last panel, in the cockpit of his flying vehicle.. Kevin added a few tourist stickers. One, from a trip to Florida. And along the dash, ones for Hollywood and Disneyland! hah

By the time we got to our 2nd Year Group Film project, we were a little more serious about things.. Disney-style cartoony animation, wasn't really our thing. We both preferred the Fleischer 'SUPERMAN' shorts.
On top of that, we were both huge Frazetta fans.. In 1983, the animated 'FIRE AND ICE' feature made with Ralph Bakshi, came out.. And a year before that, Milius' 'CONAN' came out.. We still had Frazetta on the brain, so we decided to try and make a film about a gladiator-styled "Pit Fight"..
Kevin not only designed our "hero" character. But had the audacity to sculpt himself a small maquette to help him draw the character from multiple angles! I don't have a photo of the sculpture, but here's what Kevin's model sheet looked like:

Kevin always spent a good deal of time deciding on a character's "name".. I didn't think it was a big issue, but I could tell it was very important to him. Perhaps because his character was a bit Germanic-looking and had long blond hair, Kev settled on: "Kruger"..
I was supposed to handle scenes with our "villain". And was less-interested in what he'd be named. Perhaps that's why we never called him anything beyond: "the Brute".. My designs for "Brute" don't have Kevin's flair, but here's basically what he looked like:

We knew that the amount of work involved to get everything finished, would be gargantuan. Even so, we felt like if we could get enough of the film done to show our teachers the "potential" of our project, we'd pass the Review process at year's end. We didn't spend too much time on plot/story. But we knew the sequence of the scenes needed. And the choreography necessary, for what was essentially an animated "fight scene"..
Here's a page of Notes that I unearthed:

I couldn't find any model sheets showing the scale between these 2 characters.. But I suppose it's important to mention that "Kruger" was literally supposed to be about half the size of "Brute". We wanted to establish early on, that the cards were heavily-stacked against our hero! Kev had some great shooting ideas for playing with this sense of contrast.. Here are a few of his layout sketches:

Now somewhere along the way, our production got sidetracked with (what we concluded) was an innovative foray into "rotoscoping" technology.. Occasionally during our lunches, we'd make a trip over to a nearby Oakville mall to go shopping for toys & videos, etc. During one of these junkets, we came across some Fisher-Price Viewers that would allow you to pop in a plastic cartridge and view short animated clips from various studios. I can recall buying a couple Disney ones. I think "Clock Cleaners" was one. Another was about a "Haunted House"..
Having been an avid Super-8 filmmaker in high school, I guess my curiousity got the best of me. And I wanted to find out how the damn things worked.. So, I slowly pried one of the plastic cartridges opened. And was amazed to find that the Viewers used super-8mm clips, in a closed loop. Maybe 30 seconds worth total..
I suggested to Kevin that if we could shoot some live-action reference of each other, portraying the action we needed for our scenes.. it'd be really helpful! I already had the super-8 camera. All we needed was to build a few flimsy props & simple costumes..
Here's a rough tracing of me, from live-action. With the translated animated version of "Brute", for comparison:

Anyhoo, long-story-short.. We actually did shoot all the live-action film in a spare room at the college. And used it all for direct reference. But the time wasted on this ambitious venture, really put us behind the 8-Ball, schedule-wise. Basically, we just envisaged a grand meal that was just a little too big for our plates! But isn't that what college kids do best?.. Imagine & Dream..
While our teachers admired the scale/scope of our ideas.. There simply wasn't enough finished animation footage available to assess, for them to allow myself and Kev to graduate to 3rd Year. To our great disappointment, we both would have to repeat our 2nd Year.
Halfway thru my "repeat" year, my interest in animation was waning. I dropped out to work at a comic-book shop in Toronto. Kev continued on, and eventually graduated the program. Later on, I helped him get a job at 'Andromeda'; a comic-book distributor. Eventually, he'd return the favour and get me a Layout Test opportunity at Nelvana. Where in 1989, we both got our start in the Animation business, working on their "Beetlejuice" cartoon series!

In 1995, I began working as a Freelance artist, under my own company name. Kevin continued on at Nelvana; but would often "moonlight" doing work for the same studios I worked at. We remained good friends, though I saw him substantially less than I once did. I know he had many other friends too, as attendance at his funeral clearly attested.
Kevin was always a friendly and helpful guy. If there was a bitter side to his personality, then I never saw it. On top of that, his artwork was always top-notch and superbly executed. I've seen a lot of fellow artists "hack" out work; especially as they got older. I never saw evidence of that with Kevin. He took pride in everything he commited himself to. I will miss him, very much..

Illustration Friday: "LAUNCH"..

Well, I'm getting a bit better at my "Illustration Friday" participation.. I actually got to the "inking" stage, this time 'round! I had hoped to add some color, too. But I have some urgent freelance work, that's going to prevent that idea. Maybe next time?
Here is my entry for the this week's Theme: "Launch".

Earlier in the week, I'd stumbled across a Tumblr that had a cute photo of a little tyke in a crazy retro Space Helmet, gazing intently upon a Toy Rocket. Serendipity, or Synchronicity? I dunno, but I took it as a cue for my drawing, here..
Here's what the Final Art ended up looking like:

As you can see,-- I used a combination of col-erase pencils and ink. I'm fairly happy with the results. The drawing came together quickly, with only a few probs. More disconcerting to me, was the trouble I had with the inking. My old eyes just aren't what they used to be, I guess. And even with relatively-new reading glasses, I still had trouble seeing the smaller details. Thank God for Photoshop, eh?! hah
I think I can credit the facial expression to my heavy Wally Wood influence. But I also see a bit of Rick Geary here, too. That came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I haven't looked at his artwork in a very long time..
Hope you enjoy seeing this one!

Many thanks, for dropping by.. See ya, next time!

FF's 50th Anniversary!

Many moons ago, I roughed-out a sketch of the entire 'FANTASTIC FOUR' group.. I'd bought a few of the Kirby/Sinnott ESSENTIAL trade paperbacks earlier; and found them really inspirational. That vintage artist team seemed to really click, on the series. And Joe Sinnott's slick inking, really made Kirby's pencilling sing!
Realizing that my original Layout would likely require some finessing, if I wanted all of the compositional elements to work.. I thought it'd be a good idea to put each character on a seperate page. They turned out pretty good, I thought. But unfortunately, I never got 'round to adding a background. Eventually I sold them all off thru a series of eBay auctions; promoting my 2003 self-published sketchbook..

More recently, I read that the 50th Anniversary of the FF would be one of many "themes" featured in the Souvenir Program Book at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.. So, I dragged out my old FF artwork & sketched out a Background that'd work behind what'd already been done.
There were parts of the old artwork that I was never quite happy with.. So, in addition to adding a background, I decided to "fix" stuff like Reed Richard's outstretched arm. As well as give The Thing a "new" face. Here's what I came up with:

It looks a bit odd, with some parts still missing.. But drawing all the Kirby -type machinery/gear, is always great fun.. And because I had the character placements already blocked-out, I was able to (hopefully) spot additional elements, without making the Layout overly busy & congested.. Even so, it still took a bit finagling inside Photoshop to get everything to fit properly..

The only thing I was sure of, for the Coloring stage,-- was that I wanted the back wall (with the large hole) to framed using a darker tone. Ideally, this would contrast nicely against the bright skyline..
I decided to add a colored line for the cityscape, so as to not distract too much from my Foreground details.
Here's how the Final Art turned out:

Even though I started working on this quite awhile back,-- the deadline of April 29th came up frighteningly fast. I barely got the image file sent off, just under the wire! With a bit of luck, the pic will see print at this year's biggest annual comic-book convention..
Anyways, it was a fun project. And one that I heartily recommend to any/all artists interested in self-promoting their abilities to a defined audience..
See ya!

Goshdurn DOODLE Dump!

It's hard for me to believe that I let another entire month slip by, before updating my Blog.. I had the best of intentions to post something in January. And had started a number of drawings that I thought would fit nicely. But alas, Life seems to always find a way of impeding my completion on these things...
In any case, I'm well past due for a Blog update. So I went thru the vast pile of unfinished illustration ideas & unearthed a couple of older sketches. Composited in a bit of "newer" stuff, too.. And figgered this would make a sufficient posting? I hope so..
Below, is one of these:

Some of these sketches are pretty loosey-goosey. My stuff usually ends up more finished-looking.. But I think the 2 weird figures at the Top Left were supposed to be a kind of strange Charles Burns -esque 'Santa Claus'?! I can't even remember why I did these..
The gaggle of more-finished "inked" figures are Elves, which I may still use in a future Christmas Card. I like how most of these turned out.. There's a nice contrast in the overall variety. I can recall the l'il marching ones, were adapted from a Frazetta 'Funny Animal' comic.. Always a fun exercise!
The other blue-pencil ones along the Bottom, were studies I'd done from a pre-code 50's Horror anthology, I purchased recently. In fact, I'm 99% sure the Ghoulie-Guy rubbing his hands, is from a Jack Cole story.. Cole was a brilliant artist whose artwork I cannot seem to get enough of!

The above sketch page, is a little more finished.. But again, the ideas/concepts were never incorporated into anything I felt was worth completing. The inked stuff along the top, are studies from a classic Wally Wood MAD story, entitled: "Wreck Of The Hesperus".. The idiot daughter in that one, never ceases to crack me up! hah
The bottom tier is quite Wood-sy, too. Essentially, more riffs on his style.. A couple of weird Alien figures, in all of their resplendent nekkid-ity!
The stern-looking Male faces thru the middle, were an idea I once had for a kind of 'NICK FURY' -style Super Spy. He was supposed to look a bit like Robert Mitchum, I guess? I can't recall.. But I did like the way all of the l'il Ass Chins turned out on these! haha

Anyways, hope you'll enjoy perusing some of the detritus from these projects?..
Because I'm pretty positive there'll be more Doodle Dumps, in my future!

"When CAPTAIN AMERICA Throws His Mighty Shield!.."

So,-- here's a rough CAP sketch that I just finished.. Did you know this character will be 70 years old, next March?! I don't think he looks a day over 30!

I couldn't resist drawing a Kirby-style CAP running headlong towards those dirty Huns.. Hence, the whole "exploding off the Page" motif..
This sketch will be part of a more elaborate illustration. The weird sketchy stuff along the top may (or may not) be added to the final composition..I'd love to include the transformation of the scrawny Steve Rogers. And also, the Red Skull. But I dunno if I can fit it all in? We'll see..

The Marvel Essential CAPTAIN AMERICA volumes are pretty fantastic reference.. Not only is there some terrific Jack Kirby stuff in 'em. But you also get some of the "groovy" Jim Steranko artwork, too!
I'll confess that I can't really relate much, to the modern "Ultimates" -version of the character.. He always seems trussed-up with a crazy helmet, suspenders, goggles, elbow/knee pads, etc.. Has he gotten weaker, since I read him, back in-the-day? I doubt it.
I recently saw a cover where CAP was even geared up with an AK-47 machine gun?! Dat's just plain screwy, I sez!!

I know that Hollywood is currently preparing a live-action "Captain America" feature. So, I guess having him appear more like a U.S. soldier makes better sense than flashy spandex? The production pics I've seen, look quite intriguing.. (Especially casting actor Hugo Weaving as: "the Red Skull"!)
The film is being directed by Joe Johnston. Yup, the same guy that brought Dave Stevens' "The ROCKETEER" to the silver-screen.. At least we know the movie will "look" half-decent..
But let's face it,-- Hollywood's track record for translating comic-book properties into films, is notoriously piss-poor.  And for me, traditional 2-D animation still seems the most logical way to create a movie out of a comic-book!

Anywayz, I thought this'd make a nice Post.. Enjoy!

Another BURBY Baseball ALL-STAR revealed!

Hello again!

Yeah I know, it's been TOO long between Posts for me.. But a number of Freelance projects occupied my time, and kept me too busy to present anything new here..
But here's an Image that I've just completed.. It's yet another "Hall Of Fame" -type personality, in the ever-growing BURBY Baseball Card series!
This time 'round, our featured ALL-STAR player, is none other than: John Lei.. Another Animation guy, that I met (and worked with) thru the late-90's.. I think we first met at the (now defunct) 'Phoenix Animation' studios?
Unfortunately, I don't have any "Lifetime" stats recorded for John.. So, I'm going to assume that he only started playing Burby, sometime after 1996?
I can tell you that he was a solid Pitcher. And always batted somewhere in the high .300's! The important personal stats that John provided me with, are as follows: Born in Hong Kong, in November of 1970. Stands 5' 7 1⁄2" tall & weighs 142 lbs. Bats: Right and Throws: Left..

Every Card first starts out with some reference photos.. Which I shoot, as best I can. John's photos turned out a bit dark. So I had some difficulty making out the details around his eyes. But he gave me a solid hang-dog/all-business expression.. Which makes the drawing, all that much more fun to do!
I won't bore you with all of the "process" details again, re: the making of John's card. But if you click thru the "Burby" tag at the bottom of this Post.. You'll be able to follow the same techniques, which I used on Sasa Radosavcevic's artwork.
Again, the coloring is intended to mimic the old 50's-era "painted" Baseball Cards.. Slowly applying light washes of pencil crayon color, blending them carefully to build the right tones/values. I didn't take very many scans of the card as it was being put together.. But here's one, to help give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

The white shirt John had on in the reference photos, helped me map out the Red piping on the Jersey. And I altered his Black Glove to a more traditional leather color scheme. As I couldn't find any examples of Black leather gloves in any of the 1950's reference I had..
Below, is the finished Final Art:
John (and his wife Sasha) have been longtime friends of both myself & my sweetheart: Suzanne.. So, when we finally decided to get married, last April.. John and Sasha, were natural choices to act as witnesses at our Wedding. But what I only had an inkling of then, was what a great photographer John was!
We were both ecstatic when John also offered to take a series of Wedding photos of us, during/after the ceremony. Which he presented to us on a digital CD, about a week later..
I look a little "pink" in this one, but Suzanne looks fabulous here:

The game of Burby has under gone something of a resurgence here in Toronto, lately.. Mainly due to the diligence of it's organizer: Adrian Golombek. You can follow the week-to-week progress of the highly-organized 'Toronto Burby League' by clicking thru on the highlighted Link.
Me and John had a bit of a chuckle when I described the differences between their version of the game, and the version we used to play.. But I've gotta give credit where credit is due. They're definitely a highly-motivated bunch of players!

I think I've now got about 2 (possibly 3?) unfinished Cards, left to complete. The Chris York one, has literally been "half done" for quite a few years now. . At this point, it's become a real grind to finish them. But I'm so close to finishing the entire set, I almost feel I have to get 'em done!

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, 'til that day arrives.. See ya!

The Pajama Game!

Hello Folks!

Apologies for the long delay between posts.. But over the past couple weeks, I've been busy with a freelance illustration job, which fell fortuitously into my lap..
A friend of the family, has a wife that is a member of a theatre group that performs here in Scarborough. She'd recently won the lead role in their upcoming production of: 'THE PAJAMA GAME'. And he thought it'd be a nice gesture to commission a poster recreation, to celebrate the event..
He provided me some of the required Photo Reference. And a rather poor JPEG of the movie poster, which he found online. It was so gauzy, I couldn't see what was going on.. So I dug around downstairs & found (fortunately!) an old MOVIE LIFE mag from October 1957, that had not only a full-page ad for the Doris Day film.. But also some great color ref, for the actual pajamas..
Originally, the client had asked for an authentic Broadway poster recreation, based on the original play. But felt that a recreated movie poster ,would work better as a "gift". So, that's the direction we went..
Amongst the photos he lent me, I found a nice headshot of his wife, that was perfect for the Doris Day pose.. But he also wanted EIGHT other cast member profiles, featured off to one side?! Oi-Vey, that was gonna be a whole other conundrum!
Luckily, their theatre group: 'Spotlight Musical Productions' has an excellent website.. With a number of terrific 'Photo Gallery' pages from past shows.. I was able to dig thru those & find a few other suitable shots, to fill out the rest of the image..
The initial deadline was excruciatingly tight.. He wanted the finished poster completed & printed, so he could present it at the After Party (April 26th) of the closing show.. That only gave me about 5 full days, to get it done.
By Friday evening, I knew I'd never make the deadline.. I suggested working towards just getting the central figure of his wife (as "Babe") done. And then getting a single Poster composited & printed with all of the other elements blocked-in, so that he could show off what the final product would look like? It was the best compromise I could think of..
So at about 11pm, I drove like a madman to a downtown Kinko's -- got it printed at full size (14" x 22"!).. And raced back to the 'Fairvew Library Theatre' in Scarborough, where they'd just begun breaking down the sets backstage..
I think I impressed my client with my personal hand-delivered shipment, just past the Witching Hour! hah
To my great relief, he was very satisfied with the results.. And now that the show's deadline was past, I'd be able to finish the rest of the Poster, at a much more relaxed pace!
Initially, I thought I could save some time by using the scanned-in pajama top, for my final image. Which is why you see "Babe" (above) in 3 disjointed parts? I was gonna composite those onto the pajama top, thru Photoshop.. But the chunky halftones were simply too distracting & looked out-of-place with everything else. So I went back, and drew up a whole new tunic..

All of the color work was done, using a combination of Pantone markers and pencil crayons.. Mostly Col-Erase pencils, actually.. Which tend to go down on the page a bit smoother..
I had met the client's wife (Teresa) before.. So, I knew instinctively what she looked like. That makes drawing a person, so much easier!
I had no such help, with the other 8 character heads.. And they proved a much tougher challenge. Especially, with the limited number of good photos I was able to glean from the theatre group's webpages!
I'm sure a few of these folks, are gonna be appalled by their likenesses?.. Sorry, gang! I did the best I could, given the circumstances..
Here's a JPEG showing their progress..
I thought the final assembly of the image would be easy? Not so!
The text pieces were okay.. Most of it achieved, using Pagemaker and/or Photoshop. "The Pajama Game" masthead was hand-done & that took a wee bit longer.. The initial printout was also showing that my Yellows were all skewed too "Green". So for the Final Image, I went back & changed them to a richer hue..
In hindsight, it seems like I spent oodles of time simply "compositing" things to the BG.. I dropped in some small figures along the baseline, directly from the cleaned-up scans from my vintage poster ad. And then used Photoshop's cloning tool to create a nice "soft" edge transition, around all of the main character elements.. Hopefully these bits of extra attention will pay off, once the File is taken to the printers? We'll see..

Well, that's how the whole thing came together.. Hope I didn't bore you too much with all of my Process Talk? All in all, I really enjoyed working on this Job. And I hope that I get a few more like it, in the future..

TTY'all Laterz!

S'more CHESTACLESE!

Okay, I was gonna keep this hidden from public viewing.. But with Jim Smith's blessing, here it be! Both the pencilled & inked versions of the 1st Pass at CHESTACLESE..

Probably the biggest difference from the 2nd Pass,-- is that my initial take on it, was much more detail-oriented.. I added more muscletone, where there wasn't any featured in Jim's initial sketch. I guess I felt more free to add my own touches with the Battleaxe & the Lower Legs.. As they weren't even featured in Jim's drawing..
I've always enjoyed the way Berni Wrightson would add those bigass Tricep muscles to Arms.. So that's probably why I added that? I don't think the "feathered" inking works quite so well here, though..

I was sorting thru older Drawings.. when I dug up an older 'CHESTACLESE' sketch, that a guy named Marc (from Dorval, Quebec) had commissioned from me at a 2005 Toronto comic-book convention..
It freaks me out a little bit, how savage I drew him.. This is closer to the older model of 'CHESTACLESE' that Jim featured in his sketchbook, a few years back..

More of a crazed CONAN-esque barbarian/brigand? I like the way the Demon turned out here.. I think I must've been calling up imagery from that weird 70's-era Ernest Borgnine horror movie: "The Devil's Rain".. heh