First Love

Remember that first kiss? Yeah, it was that magical.

I managed to squeeze out another drawing in my sketchbook to cap off 2014. Happy New Year everyone!

Star Wars Girl

Maybe it's because the new Star Wars movie is coming out, but I think I just saw a Chewbacca mirage!  I called out to my friends, "Doesn't that girl's hair look just like Chewbacca?

Merry Christmas!

I thought this girl looked like a cross between a Christmas tree and a Gryffindor alum. Merry Christmas!

Sketching on the go with Marcelo Vignali

I just posted a video on Youtube regarding my materials, and a peak into my sketchbook.

I'm Heading Back to Italy...

Meet me there!

Open Season 2003

 I was looking for some images from Open Season, in order to add them to a presentation I'm going to be giving in Turin Italy at The View Conference on Tuesday, October 14th between 10:00 -- 11:00am.

On the 13th, I'll be teaching a workshop between 9:30--11:30am. The workshop will be on Storytelling with a Visual Vocabulary.

Graphite

In 2003, at Sony Pictures Animation, we were still trying to figure out how to create digital animated movies. In these designs I was building assets that were later used in a test using Maya. I did a series of drawings that we used as digital cards, in order to plan a camera move and track our camera.The cards were later replaced by digital assets as they were created.

In the beginning at Sony Pictures Animation, we were in the process of having to invent techniques that would later become a staple at the studio. Much of what we did was a mix of analog and digital. I provided drawings, and Michael Humphries painted them. Much of the paintings Michael did were also analog. He painted his work in acrylic paint, and had a whole series of painting techniques to accommodate the textures.

Graphite

Once completed, our digital painters emulated what Michael Humphries was able to do with paint, and likewise with the digital models. The result was spectacular as is evidenced by the movie.

Graphite

That's a doodle of my youngest daughter there among the foliage.

Indian Summer

We've been met with particularly warm weather this fall.

The Random Tales of Snorky

My 13 year old daughter now has her own Youtube channel! She's been posting some of her animation, please go and take a look. If you subscribe, you'll get notices when she posts a new one. BTW, it's all done on an iPad, and all her own ideas. 

Lunch Doodle

Never underestimate the power of the doodle. For artists alike, doodling is the way we organize our thoughts without any words. It's how we encompass our spur of the moment emotions and inspirations.

Nutritional Advice for the Artist

There's that old adage, "you are what you eat." But, in reality, that's not true.

In reality, we are the some total of what we see and hear. These have a greater influence over our thoughts and our actions, than what gets dissolved by the gastric acid of our stomachs.

While in the Philippines 2014, during ICON Manilla, I had a chance to share some of my thoughts on this subject with Adobo Magazine.

The River Styx

We have to reach back to 2002 for this one. The date says 2003, but I remember it was drawn while I was still living in Utah, thereby making it between 1997 - 2002. By the end of 2002, I had moved back to California.

This drawing is graphite pencil on bond paper. I probably added the slight blur on the foreground element in 2003, hence the later date on the drawing. I guess it's now a mix between traditional and digital. Normally, I would have drawn the blur.

I think that computers have certainly been a benefit to the industry of animation, but that's not to say that it didn't come without a cost. I don't know that there are many people left who can still draw backgrounds on paper as they did during the golden age of animation.

Cats are never domesticated

I'm still playing around with this funny cat idea.

I've had cats nearly all of my life, and they are amazing personalities to live with. I don't really feel like they are truly domesticated, but rather to live with a cat is to have a complicated relationship with someone.

They certainly have a mind of their own, regardless our plans or expectations we attempt to have for them.