Brush Pens

Hey, one of the many cool things about Japan was the multitude of brush pens available. I came back with probably fifteen different kinds, for a total of probably 100 pens. I can't wait to try them all! This pic is of one of them. I found the pic on Google.

Home again, home again....

Well, we're back! This past week was an absolute whirlwind. I don't even know where to begin. I am severely jet lagged right now, though, so I'll make tonight's post quick. Here's a pic of me and the fam in front of one of the cool temples. This one in Akasaka (sp?).

Japan

Yep, my wife finally talked me into it. We're going to Japan this Friday for a week. Plan to check out some caricature stands that some Japanese friends of mine run, and hopefully even buy some cool art supplies we don't get here.

The only thing that's getting' me down? The 14.5 hour flight, straight from Atlanta to Tokyo. Oh man.....

Creating Characters with Personality!

Just got this book in from Amazon today. Wow, I love it! It's the best book out there on character design. Tom Bancroft, the author, started out at Disney Animation, and has worked for tons of clients over the years. I did a pinup for his comic book, Opposite Forces, a few years back, and had the pleasure of meeting him for lunch one day when he still lived here in Orlando. I'm happy to say that not only is he incredibly talented, but he's also a really, really nice guy. Turns out we knew a lot of the same people, including my good friend, Steve Silver (another character designer, of Kim Possible fame). Tom actually mentioned this book to me back then. He'd just begun working on it.

His book is now a great addition to my ever-growing library, and I HIGHLY reccommend it to any cartoonist, whether you be a caricaturist, animator, comic strip artist, comic book artist, etc, etc. Not only is it the best character design book out there, but it, along with the Ben Caldwell Action!Cartooning books, are the best cartoon how-to books out there, period , in my opinion (don't even get me started about how much I dislike most of the Christopher Hart books). You really owe it to yourself to purchase one. Thanks for writing it, Tom!

Hang ups

The next step for these abstracts caricatures was that since I sent them as vector images to the client, he could blow them up as big as he wanted. He did this, had them mounted on foamcore, and now everyone's caricature hangs over their desk. Here's a photo of them (the guy looking out of one of the cubicles is the client). I think they turned out cool, and they all loved them. He contacted me just last week about doing some more.

Office Abstracts

So, this job was from a client a few months back. I believe it was for a Michigan insurance agency or something like that. The client wanted to do something for he and his office mates that would make their department stand out. So, he commissioned me to do abstract caricatures of each of them.

Racer 1!

Had a client recently who wanted some generic superheroes. This one is a variation of one I had on my site for a previous client. They liked it, so I changed the costume a bit. Superheroes are such fun to make up. I'll try to post the others as I finish them. I even gave 'em "working names" as I've been drawing them. This one is "Racer 1"