VIGNALI STUDIO

I just got back from a vacation trip to Hawaii with my family. No doubt it was the inspiration for this image. What a beautiful island paradise. The hula is an amazing dance: it really is hypnotic. The swaying of the grass skirts and fluid motions of the body look very much like the swaying palm trees and ocean waves. Really relaxing.

I had been to Kauai on a photo research trip many years ago, Disney sent a group of us doing visual development for Lilo & Stitch. But, this was the first time I was able to vacation in Hawaii.

Here's another sketch along the lines of  the last post.

Again, there is no reference used for these images, personally I think that's part of the charm. Sometimes too much reference adds too much information that becomes distracting. However, when we draw from our imaginations we only draw those things which are relevant to the mood or the point we wish to get across to the viewer.

I just love tasteful fantasy illustrations, and my friend Craig Elliot and the Gallery Girls put together a life drawing event called "Girls and Flowers." Sadly, I wasn't able to attend, but it certainly inspired me to draw a  few sketches along those lines. Here is one I gave to my friend Omar Smith.

I drew this purely from my imagination (no reference) with Prismacolor Pencils on toned paper, and used whiteout for the whites on the flowers.

Yesterday we got together for our weekly Sketchclub lunch. When we were all done eating, sketching and chatting, we spotted our mark getting ready to cross the street. Hopefully, we'll have several people draw the mark this time around so we can compare the details. Go and check us out at Sketchclub.

This one was drawn during a figure drawing class. This was a five minute sketch, dry brush on newsprint. The textured paper was added digitally.

Here's another dry brush sketch.

The sole purpose of this exercise isn't to render a drawing in dry brush, but to draw it quickly -- forcing my mind to think quickly. In total, the sketch was drawn within five minutes.

I could feel the rust growing!

Again, as we were coming down the finish line on Hotel Transylvania, I was working late and found myself incredibly busy at work. And, as such, I couldn't keep up on my practicing. I managed to keep our Sketchclub going, but I had stopped going to our figure drawing classes. It's been about six months since I was able to draw the figure.

I thought I would go ahead and start practicing my traditional skills again by doing some sketches. Here's a dry brush sketch I did just recently.

I've posted on the sketchclub blog! I know it's been a while, I've been swamped with work trying to finish up on Hotel Transylvania. Now that I've come up for air, I managed to get the memory sketch done for the week.

To view the entire image of FOUR CHARACTERS, go check out the blog.

I just did an interview with I'm not bad on a project I did TWENTY YEARS AGO -- and what seems like another lifetime ago.

In 1989 I was hired at Disney Imagineering, and a year later became the lead designer for the Roger Rabbit Car-Toon Spin Ride. (Yes, at one point in my career I was a theme park designer.) The interview covers my work on the ride, and how the Toontown project started.

The photo is of me the year the ride opened up to the public in 1994. Interesting to note, the ride was completed a few months after Toontown opened in 1993, but Disney marketing wanted to sit on the ride and open it up in 1994. It literally just sat there under lock and key. But, since I was a friend of Roger, I was able to get my picture with him. That's me on the left, sporting the Walt Disney 'stache.

Here's an image of Big Ben that was featured in the trailer for Hotel Transylvania.

In this sequence, monsters from all over the world are coming to the hotel. So, we needed to create images from various well-known international locations.

What's also exciting is that our director, Genndy Tartakovsky, made a trip last weekend to Cancun, Mexico, to present 17 minutes of footage to the international press. The more stuff continues to come out about our movie, the more I can show you all a bit more.

Sony Pictures Animation is finally coming out with the long awaited Hotel Transylvania, and the first trailer has finally been posted! You can check it out at Hotel Transylvania Trailer.

I've been working on Hotel Transylvania throughout it's various iterations, a total of six years -- by far the longest I've ever worked on any one project. As the Production Designer for Hotel Transylvania, I'm really grateful to Sony Corporate for seeing the potential I saw in this project and didn't give up on it. It would have been very easy for the studio to simply say, "no, this is taking too long,"and simply pulled the plug. However, it took courage to get behind this film and complete it. And for that, I couldn't be more thankful.

I'm really looking forward to showing all the work I've done on this project throughout these past six years. But of course that will have to wait till after the film is released in September.

This particular image is posted on the trailer, and so I thought I would post the artwork that inspired the windmill image in the trailer.

My good friend and coworker Ron Lukas has ventured into the blog-sphere! He's so unbelievably talented, he's responsible for much of the amazing color on Surf's Up, and now Hotel Transylvania.

Ron studied under Sergei Bongart, the famed Russian painter. And, several years later Ron would have his own school in Washington State where he himself taught painting. But, fortunately for us, Ron transitioned into the world of animation -- lending his expert eye to help with color.

Ron's mastery (and I don't use that word lightly) of traditional painting has enabled him to become one of the top artists in animation today. But his talent and contributions don't stop there, his visual development and design drawings are simply amazing. His drawings and illustrations have that rare quality of that bygone era of Dulac, Bauer and Rackham.

Ron Lukas has set up a portfolio blog, and I'd like to invite all of you to come and take a look. Ron is perhaps one of the most accomplished artists in the animation industry today.

There's a restaurant near the Sony studio called Royal T, and the waitresses there dress with these French maid-like uniforms. However, this time one of the waitresses was wearing these enormous boots! They were so big they looked like fishing waders, complimented of course with her demure good nature nature. But you know, they kinda worked!

I think I'm the only one who did the "mark" for this past week.

It's been years since I've done straight watercolors, and it makes me wonder, why the heck did I stop, they're so much fun? Oh, that's right, I have kids!

Let's see if someone posts their version of this wimpy kid at, Sketchclub.

I decided I would dust off the watercolors during our weekly Sketchclub gathering. I painted these during my lunch hour.

I really enjoy painting on these buckslips. The paper texture and weight on these buckslips is perfect.

In earlier days at Sony, the studio had these made for one of our directors -- complete with his name at the bottom of the buckslip. But, when he left the studio, he left behind a stack of these. They laid around the studio for a few years when I discovered them. I quickly grabbed them, took them to the paper cutter and cut the name off the bottom, and have been steadily working my way through the stack of buckslips. Gosh, I don't know what I'll do when I run out!

This poor girl was so skinny, she couldn't even fill out those Daisy-Duke shorts she was wearing. Hah, but she was working it, just ask that kid!

Happy new year everyone, lots of changes!

For starters, I lost my home office space to my daughter. Yes, my office has been boxed up and now resides in the confines of my garage, my former home office has been converted into a bedroom for my teenage daughter. I spent the last week scraping, sanding and painting, and it looks fantastic. She's really happy to finally have her own room.

But, since I've downsized my office, the consolation is that I now have a Cintiq! My office now consists of a small corner in my bedroom with a computer table. Unfortunately, I'm working with Photoshop 7 on a nine year old computer. I'll have to manage to make this work for now.

This is a test I made using my Cintiq.

Todd Hampson has a wonderful blog called Timbuktoon. Todd was also one of the people that attended my "Conversation with the Creator" sit-in chat at the CTN Expo -- and he took lots of notes. If you're intersted in some of the topics we discussed, go and check it out.

Well, Sony has finally started to show some of the artwork related to our next family feature film, Hotel Transylvania! Or, as we commonly refer to it, Hotel T.

This is the movie I've been working on...throughout the various iterations. I started working on a different version of this film right after Surf's Up, it's taken this long to find the right story. As the production designer for this project, I'm looking forward to showing some of the amazing artwork we've been creating -- I'm really proud of my crew.

The castle in this image was designed by Luc Desmarchelier and painted by the very talented Joty Man Lam. The character design for Mavis was done by Annette Marnat .

See you at the CTN Expo this weekend! Look me up in the schedule, I'll be there all three days.

Here's an oldie that's been collecting dust in the Vignali vault!

I think I drew this one for Disney's Atlantis, sometime in 1997. I was splitting my time between Atlantis, and Emperor's New Groove. Only then it was called Kingdom of the Sun.

Just to let everyone know, I'll be at the CTN EXPO! I'll be there November 18-20. Hope to see you there. I'll be posting about it soon.

Here's a couple sketches I drew on some Magic proofs. Sandy, the proud owner of these two sketches held them up for a picture. One of Lilo & Stitch, and the other of a faerie.

The Comikaze Expo is surprisingly large and well run -- for this being their first year. Come by and check it out.

I'll be at the Comickaze Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend (November 5-6, 2011). I'll be signing prints, cards, booklets, and drawing commission sketches. You can find me in Artists Alley, at booth 99!

Just click: Comickaze Expo

When I was at the San Diego Comic Con I picked up Jason Brubaker's reMind, it has to be one of the freshest comics I've seen in a very long time. Jason's artwork and page layout are a refreshing cold glass of water in a tepid sea of status quo comics.

Jason Brubaker has the entire reMIND comic book posted on-line, but I suggest having a look, and then buying this comic. Even his approach to advertising his comic book is unconventional, he'll let you read the entire comic.

I just did an interview with Rondal Scott at Fuel Your Illustration.

It's an interesting interview, Rondal asked me about my past in the sport of prize fighting. I came away from boxing with more than just scars and a couple broken noses -- I learned how to be a better artist. Imagine that?

You know me, I'm always more honest than I should be -- enjoy the interview.

By the way, this drawing is one I did for Brother Bear back in 1999. Yeah, I had to dig deep into the archives for this one.

Ever notice those people that cry out for attention, but when you look at them they're surprised that you're looking at them? This young gal had dyed her hair with blue streaks, yet when she caught me looking at her she became nervous and uncomfortable.

Sadly, we all knew this day was coming.

For a while I remember thinking Amy Winehouse should get her life together so she can get back to singing. But, as she continued to spiral out of control, I remember thinking she should just get her life together so she can get back to the land of the living.

Even the late night jokes stopped when everyone realized how much danger she was in. It's like we were all watching her die right in front of us, but no one could save her from herself.

In her short life, Amy made a profound impact in the music industry. Few singers are able to transcend the medium of their vocals and allow their voice to become an instrument -- Amy did that -- combined with the raw passion and heartfelt emotion she poured into her music, fans loved her for it.

The great Tuna Bora also did a tribute.

This is the first page for the comic I've been working on. It's part of a larger project that the Sony artists are contributing towards. The project is called the Exquisite Corpse, as per an old Victorian parlor game in which people contribute only a part to a larger drawing -- without being able to see the drawing in its entirety. However, the actual title of the comic book remains undecided. I guess we'll have a better idea when all the contributers turn in their pages.

I've already turned in my eight page story, and so I thought I would post page one. Lia Abbate had the story right before me, and she picked the theme with faeries. Since I love the subject of the faerie world, I decided to go along with her last panel. I soon realized I was drawing my own daughters, as they ended up being the inspiration for the characters. The name of my story is Awakening.

My friend and mentor, Fil Barlow, has finally gotten off his bony butt and created a blog, and a Deviantart page.

Ever wonder who created Zooniverse? Ever wonder who created the look for the cartoon version of Alf, the animated Starship Troopers, the animated Godzilla, Tutenstein, Igor, Chronicals of Riddick, Heavy Gear, Extreme Ghost Busters, The Real Ghost Busters, the X Files, Eight Crazy Nights? Look no further than Fil Barlow.

Fil is Australian born, and he is the creator of his own comic books, a publisher of his own magazine, a gallery painter, a character designer, a puppet designer and a puppeteer. Fil is also a 2D animation artist, as well as a CG modeler! He's a literal renaissance man, and perhaps one of the most sincere and genuine people in the business.

When I first saw Fil's Zooniverse comic book, I was hooked, and I knew then I wanted to work with him. However, when he showed up in America, I was surprised to discover he was only a couple years older than I was! Imagine, he published Zooniverse when he was only 24 years old!

We worked together at DIC Entertainment in the late 1980s, and he's been my mentor and friend ever since. Please welcome, Fil Barlow.

Yeah, you heard right, 2012! Just to let everyone know, I'll be at the Radisson LAX on 6225 W Century Blvd this coming Saturday, July 9th, 2011. It's a Sunmesa sponsored event, and it's a prerelease for Magic 2012.

This is a Magic prerelease and tournament. I've never been to one of these events, so it should be interesting to see all the gamers duel it out.

Click this LINK to get more information on this event.

I drew this for a Christmas gift exchange at work. Why? I have no idea. I guess it just popped into my brain that that moment.

Of all the people that could have gotten the gift, it turns out Glenn Harmon (my good friend and carpool buddy) won it! Good thing I didn't show it to him before hand! Sheesh, I would have spoiled the surprise.

I'm sorry for not posting in a while - I guess things have gotten pretty hectic lately. Regardless, here's a recent sketch I did at Sketchclub.

Yep, the temperatures are rising, here in here come the hot-pants. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of this skinny girl to fill out her hot-pants.

Just to let everyone know, I'll be at table 1114 this weekend at the Ahaheim Comic Con! I'll have prints, and a convention sketchbook for sale. I'll also be signing proofs, doing commission sketches, and talking with all of you.

For those of you interested, I'll be appearing at the comic con in Anaheim the weekend of April 29th-May 1st!

Wizard Entertainment has invited me to participate at this year's Anaheim Comic Convention, and I'll be signing my gaming card illustrations, as well as having original art, doing commission sketches, selling prints, and also offering my first convention sketchbook.

In this sketchbook, you'll find thirty-two pages of sketches related to my gaming card illustration work, preliminary sketches, and other fantasy themed sketches - such as faeries.

For those of you that can't make it to the convention, I'll be selling these sketchbooks on-line -- after the event. However, I'm going to be adding a convention exclusive to make it an incentive to come out and visit with me. I haven't figured out what that item will be yet -- but I have a few ideas.

Just to let you know, I don't have my booth number yet, I'll post it when I get it. I hope to see you all there!

OK, here's a couple from an entire series of humorous cat sketches.

After my back surgery, my nine year old daughter and I sat around the table and had a drawing contest. We both started drawing cats, and she drew me right under the table! Her drawings were hilarious (I'll have to post some of her drawings). I was drawing one for every three of hers!

After which, I continued with the theme of cats and filled a sketchbook with ridiculous cat drawings.

Maybe a father/daughter book?

Here's another faerie image.

I'm currently putting together a short comic book story with faeries, and I'm also compiling a bunch of faerie development sketches for a small sketchbook.

I just want to let everyone know, my father Luis Vignali, passed away on February 12th of this year. It's one of those inevitable days every child dreads, but arrives nonetheless.

Dad was born in Buenos Aries in 1935, and then moved to the US in 1959. But, in 2004 he moved back to beloved country of Argentina.

I want to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time. For those interested, you can see a photo montage of my dad's life on Vimeo. And, yes, you can see me in a few pictures. There's a few baby picturess, and a picture of me sleeping on his back, way back in 1967.

Click this LINK to check out the 10 minute video.

Oh, by the way, this picture was taken of my father in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1959.

Yes, I'm doing a short comic book story. And, this is one of the panels from my story.

The artists here at Sony Pictures Animation are doing a comic book project, much like the books the other studios are creating, such as "Who is Rocket Johnson."

This is not a Sony sponsored idea, but rather put together by the artists -- with each of the artists putting together their own eight page stories. So, my story is about a little Pixie.

I'll have more information for you as we get close to the publishing date. So, enjoy this sneak preview!

This one is from a while back. I was drawing the figure from life, and adding watercolor, all within the five minute mark. And, I was trying to create some distorted proportions to see what would happen.

Yes, I know, the JPG is also very small, but this is all I've got left of these images.

Graphite on ledger paper, circa 2001.

I was poking around some old artwork and I found this one. I don't have a larger file of it, or I'd post it. I remember the detail in this piece was a lot of fun -- especially the table with all the food.

The original for this piece was drawn on velum, for a project that went no where -- from my drawing table to some dusty old vault in some undisclosed place in Burbank, I would imagine. I'm guessing I drew this about ten or eleven years ago.

I've got some other files from this project I can post, but unfortunately they're all about this size. These small jpg files are all I have left in terms of copies.

Merry Christmas, on the glorious birth of Jesus of Nazareth! Hallelujah!

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." Luke 2:14

Have a wonderful holiday and a wonderful new year!

Topper Helmers is a friend of mine, and we used to work together at WDI in the early 1990s. As customary for those days -- as the young man in the studio -- I was prone to doing joke drawings for my coworkers. What ever was happening that was current was usually fodder for me. I loved sending these via interoffice mail -- this made boring interoffice mail fun.

Some of the drawings are just roughs I would use to create some of my designs, and some are just doodles I would give Topper when he showed an interest in a particular sketch. And, some where just inside jokes. (Gosh, I had completely forgotten about most of them till I saw them again.)

My friend Topper has posted some of the drawings I gave him on a web site/auction site. And, if you twist his arm, I'll bet he'd even sell a few. He's a huge collector of art, and he's got some amazing artwork in his collection.

You might be wondering why all the red-head jokes, heh...well, he had a thing for red-heads. Topper also kept pressuring me to do a comic book, so I teased him with this sketch.

Go to Topper's Page to check out these sketches from nearly 20 years ago.

This poor kid was working hard as a house painter, but who could resist such an opportunity to draw him? He was covered in white paint!

Go to Sketchclub to check out my latest memory sketch. I've got the full image posted there.

Heh-heh, you know it's getting cold in California when the scarfs come out.

OK, maybe I didn't find this image in an old book, but it's fun to create images I'd like to find.

This is a rough sketch of a faerie that I superimposed over some textures. I imagined it was an old book plate.

Here's a new sketch from my sketchbook. It's similar to the sketches I have on my Sketchclub app.

For those interested, I don't have a sketchbook for sale, but I do have my Sketchclub app, it's pretty affordable at $2.99

This particular sketch isn't on the Sketchclub app -- since it's new. But, it's similar to the ones in my app. Maybe it will make it into a Volume Two?