VIGNALI STUDIO

Here's a rough sketch/layout idea I did for Brother Bear.

But first, a little back story. Originally, Kenai was a little bear, and he met up with an older bear called Grizz. The father son relationship is similar to the final version that audiences saw. In the final version, the Kenai character was switched, having to step up to the plate and become the father/mentor. It was a very interesting twist and an improvement to the original story.

In this scene, Kenai (the young bear version) wanders into an abandoned human village. Longing to be human once again, he goes into one of the dwellings. Feeling trapped in this bear's body, he collapses on the floor in resignation.

Grizz sets off to find Kenai and discovers him in the dwelling. But, as he arrives, he's contrasted between the scary version of a bear drawn in the petroglyph, and himself in the same shot.

My intention was to have the camera start with Kenai feeling trapped, and then pan over to reveal the petroglyph on the wall ... and then Grizz steps into the frame.

Again, here's another one for Brother Bear. It goes along with my explorations of the animals in the land.

This drawing was drawn with Prisma Pencil on Clearprint vellum.

This particular image made it to the Making-Of book, but it was reproduced so tiny that it wasn't worth the ink! So, here it is, a little larger so as to see how I figured out the structure of the bears.

When I was working on Brother Bear, I was asked to draw a lot of animal designs. I hesitate to say character designs, because I wasn't given the task of designing any one character in specific, but rather the Disney wanted to pick my brain as to how I would design the animals in this world.

The drawings I did would then be interpreted by the animators, and that version was the final version we saw on the big screen.

Here's my take on the bears. I was surprised and flattered to see that my design for the baby bear ended up pretty close to what the final result was for Coda.

I drew these out with ink and Pantone marker. These were drawn on lazer print paper because the marker ink sits on the surface of the paper, instead of being dulled by absorbing into the paper.

Most of you are probably familiar with his work, but didn't even know you were looking at it! That's because he's done matt paintings for the past 17 years so seamlessly, you weren't even aware the scene you were looking at was a matt painting.

In other words, you are looking at the work of one of the best artists in the industry.

More than a matt painter, my good friend Paul Lasaine is also an accomplished designer. He was the production designer for Surf's Up; and has worked on many other feature length animated films. Paul was also the visual effects art director for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy!

Paul Lasaine’s film credits read like a cornicopia of visual effects films and Feature Animated films.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, he has started his own blog! Please welcome my friend, Paul Lasaine.

Here's a rough from Brother Bear.

When I got the assignment from Disney, they weren't sure I could draw bears! So, they purchased a small block of my freelance time to try me out. They were so excited about what I did for them; I stayed on the project for a year!

Initially, they would tell me what sort of animals they wanted me to draw for them, and I would give them a series of rough drawings using prisma pencil on newsprint paper.

The irony is that whenever I start on a project, I get known for doing that particular work. Hence, if I'm doing backgrounds, they forget that I can draw characters, and vice versa. Some project teams or producers still only remember me as the character-guy, while others still only think of me as being able to do backgrounds. That's why the Brother Bear crew wasn't sure I could draw animals to begin with, because they remembered the background vis/dev work on Mulan.

Here's another posting. You decide, is it a drawing from life, or from memory? Is it charcoal, or prismacolor?

Here's another posting for Sketchclub!

This is only a portion of the sketch, so please stop by and visit the Sketchclub site if you want to see the entire image.

That's right, this is not a figure drawing, but rather a memory drawing.

One of the things I routinely did in order to better assess my skills were memory drawings. Years ago, when I started drawing the figure, I would test myself to see how well I understood the anatomy. During the drawing session I would make a mental note to myself about a particular pose, and then -- the next day -- draw that pose from memory. This drawing you see is a memory drawing.

Doing this exercise was incredibly helpful because it allowed me to spot deficiencies in my work. If I had a problem drawing shoulders, feet, or hips, I could immediately spot the problem in my memory drawings. I would then compare the memory drawing with my original figure drawing from the night before in order to see how close I could get to the original. How well did I remember the pose.

Sometimes the poses I drew from memory were slightly different, but the information in my memory drawings had to work nonetheless. The memory drawings had to work in and of themselves, not just a copy.

One of the things that motivated me to start this exercise was noticing other artists that were really good at drawing the human figure when it was in front of them, but would literally fall apart when they had to draw a human figure from memory. I vowed that was not going to be me! Wherever I spotted a problem in my memory drawings, I would pull out my anatomy books and concentrate on that specific part of the anatomy. Doing this, my drawings improved rather quickly.

Here's another posting for Sketchclub!

Here's just a teaser snippet, so that you'll visit the site if you want to see the entire image.

Here's a page of three minute sketches.

I like to group my three minute sketches all together on the same page for several reasons. The first reason, I'm cheap! I can't stand the thought of using a full sheet of 18x24 paper for a 3 minute sketch.

The second reason was a happy discovery. As I grouped my sketches on the same page, I started to make quick on-the-spot choices about placement. So, not only was I working on my gestures, construction and anatomy, but also my composition skills. I don't have a good example of it in this drawing, but I also like to overlap my drawings, and sometimes with different colored media.

This was a five minute sketch, drawn with charcoal on newsprint. I Photoshopped the toned paper to keep it from being stark white, but the drawing is as I drew it.

Here's a bear design I did for Brother Bear. I was trying to thread the line between realism and caricature in an attempt to give the bear a personality we could relate to.

Marcos is one of the most talented people I've ever had the great fortune of working with. His skill and design sense for composition and drama are at the very best in the industry. I've never met his equal! Marcos has the style and confidence of the best European comic book artists, and the flair of a virtuoso...and he's a great guy to have around the studio.

Unfortunately for me, and even more unfortunate for Sony, Marcos is leaving Sony for a better deal at Dreamworks. I would like to wish my good friend lots of luck and continued success. YO...respeck!

Go to: Marcos Mateu

Ah, Little Dixie! This city was founded by Mormon pioneers, in the 1850s, as a cotton mission -- hence the nickname, Dixie.

We're sitting up on the red cliffs in Pioneer Park, overlooking St. George proper and the Mormon Temple. There are caverns that were used as homes by the settlers all over these rocks.

It was 107 degrees Fahrenheit, but not when we took this picture. We waited till the sun went down when we snapped this one, however it was probably still over 100 degrees!

When we lived in St. George I would take my daughter out to this park for a little climbing and picnic. Now, almost five years later, I brought her back up here for a little trip down memory lane. She was almost six when we left, but she still remembered things remarkably well.

The very next day we visited the Calico Ghost Town.

Hello everyone. I'm on vacation this week, but Drew Adams has posted a drawing I had done in his sketchbook over ten years ago. I thought I would go ahead and give him a link here. I also made my file a little smaller, so if you want a higher res file, you'll HAVE to go to his site.

Go to: Drew Adams

Here's a five minute figure drawing in charcoal.

Jed Henry had asked that I take some of my figure sketches out of my newsprint pads and let them see a little bit of the light of day.

Here are some character designs I did for Brother Bear.

The original assignment was to draw some prehistoric cavemen, but as the project developed the cavemen turned into Pre-Columbian Eskimo.

So, here are a father and son, preparing for some dramatic hunting occasion…but really it was an excuse to draw the wardrobe and show the directors what I had in mind in terms of clothing, jewelry and weapons.

Years ago, when I was working on Dinosaurs for Disney, I was asked to do some dinosaur designs. They had all the technical information and drawings, but what they needed was someone to draw the creatures with a sense of life and animation, without going into the realm of cartoon.

I drew out several roughs in order to work out my designs, mostly using ballpoint pen on newsprint.

Here's another posting for Sketchclub!

I made this one a little different so there would be a reason to visit the Sketchclub site. Aside from the color, can you spot the design difference?

Here's a snapshot of Armand Serrano, Paul Lasaine, and myself (pictured from right to left) doing our Surf's Up signing at the San Diego Comic Con.

We got to meet quite a few of animation fans, and were able to sign several posters and books for two hours solid. That's no surprise, since the Comic Con enjoyed record attendance this year -- and sold out the convention center on Saturday. It's a far cry from the first time I went to the San Diego Comic Con in 1987!

Despite being there since the convention opened on Friday at 9:00 AM, I was unable to see the entire show. Regrettably, there was so much that I missed. I'm definitely going to have to book for more than one day.

You are all invited to to stop by the Sony Pictures booth this Friday, July 27, at the 2007 San Diego Comic Convention.

Please stop by and say hello. Paul Lasaine, myself and Armand Serrano (all pictured above) will be there to do a book signing for the Surf's Up making-of book. The Sony booths are located at 4137 and 4419.

(This picture was taken three years ago at a surfing contest while we were doing research for our film.)

Here's another drawing I did for Brother Bear.

I really enjoyed working on this project, and the people at the Disney Florida studio really treated me well. I worked with Producer Chuck Williams, directors Aaron Blaise, Bob Walker, Robh Ruppel and Bob Stanton; they are all top-drawer in my book. They allowed me the time to explore the animals and the world; I felt as though I really got to sink my teeth into the designs.

I didn't know Armand Serrano then, but he also worked on Brother Bear too.

I drew this one on vellum, but for the blog I went ahead and layered it with a colored background and tinted the linework. However, the drawing is untouched. It is as I drew it seven years ago.

Here's one from the Vignali Vaults. I found an old disk with some drawings I did for Disney's Brother Bear.

During this period I was living in Utah and was working as a freelancer for Disney. It was a good time in my life. My daughter was four years old and she would play in my studio as I worked at my drawing board.

Anyhow, I saw this image and remembered how much I enjoyed drawing it, so I thought you all might like to have a look at it. By the way, this was not printed in the making-of book for Brother Bear -- and Disney has the original.

I drew this one one with Prisma Pencil on tracing paper, hence the ripple when I scanned it. The moisture of my hand buckled the paper just a bit.

(Simon Rogers came by and looked over my shoulders and said I was cheating by posting this old stuff. He was just kidding of course, but how fortunate I am to have such talent around me! I have Simon Rogers, Armand Serrano, Noelle Triaureau, Marcos Mateu and Jed Henry -- who's work you can see posted on Blogger -- in the very same building along with me.)

Go to Sketchclub to see the full version.

Go to Sketchclub! .

I was just doing a little exploration, with no particular direction in mind. However, I used to work with *Zipitone way back when, and thought I would try to emulate the look with Photoshop.

*I'm not sure a lot of you know what Zipitone is/was. Back in the day, the printing process was separated using mechanicals. Depending upon the quality of the paper, you had a different "line screen." Zipitone was a sticky backed acetate that had little dots printed on it; it came in different line screens so artists could prepare their mechanicals accordingly. The sheets of dots came in different values, so after you did your drawing, you could lay down the Zipitone and cut out the value where you needed it.

In coming up with the look for Surf's Up competition beach during the visual develoment phase of the project, I wanted to create something audiences hadn't seen before in a film. I used the Islands of Seychelles, with its white sand beaches and sandstone boulders, as the inspiration for our beach.

Here's a shot from Seychelles. This choice afforded me the opportunity to use the large boulders as our judges booth, and really frame our sandy beaches in a way we've never seen. But, even still, I was looking for something more iconic for our island, something that could evoke both history, and mystery...so I dropped in some "Easter Island" looking stone penguins in the background.

I also used smaller rocks to frame the competion beach's bleacher area in a natural looking terrace. The final design was modified a little to fit the story, but the end result is more or less the same. I had a look at our film during the premiere, and I'm really pleased with the final result...it looks spectacular on the big screen.

This is fairly recent artwork for the soon-to-be-released animated feature, Surf's Up. You won't find this image in the Surf's Up book!

This image didn't make it to the book, but a colored version of this image is printed on page 105. The image in the book is the final image that was used for design, but the image I'm posting here is the original pencil drawing I did for the concept. I was asked to remove the tiki totems for the final, and there were some other alterations. If you have the book, you can compare the two images.

Check it out, the Making-Of book for Surf's Up is finally here, and not a moment too soon because the film's release is right around the corner. Coming at you on June 8th!

As some of you may or may not know, I was one of the two art directors for the picture. As art directors, I handled the designs while Ron Lukas managed the color. And, if I may say so, this is one of the best looking films I've had the privilege of working on.

In terms of looks, I think our film is perhaps one of the best-looking CG films since Finding Nemo. Hopefully you'll see for yourself when the film comes out. The story is pretty funny too, and the "reality TV/surfing documentary" approach is a fresh way to present an animated film.

The book has a ton of great looking visual development artwork, featuring artists like "yours truly," Paul Lasaine, Ron Lukas, Armand Serrano, Marcos Mateu, Joty Lam, Noelle Triaureau, Richie Chavez, Sylvain Deboissy. Also, lots of story sketches and CG models and renders.

The people, who put this book together, are the same group that put together the Open Season making-of book. So, that should give you an idea about the quality of this book. Again, like the Open Season book, it's got lots of stickers, pullouts, accordion folds, and post cards.

If you're interested, just click on this Surf's Up link.

Here's the latest Sketchclub victim.

Whadda character. Stop by and visit SKETCHCLUB to see how our memory drawings compare.

Yes, I know, it's been a while, but I have posted my memory sketch at our Sketchclub blog...along with Sketchclub's newest member, Craig Harris.

Stop by and visit SKETCHCLUB to see how our memory drawings compare.

Alright, and here's a close up look at the detail.

I know...most of this small detail stuff is lost on the small card, but hopefully it makes the card interesting enough that kids will get their noses close enough to see some of the information. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part.

I surprised myself by how well the bears turned out. After having drawn bears for Brother Bear for Disney, and then more bears for Sony's Open Season, I've gotten to know the structure of bears pretty well. So, I just "winged" the bears from memory.

By the way, this image I'm posting is taken from my actual illustration. Yes, I know, it's much darker than the printed version. I painted it darker, but unbeknownst to me someone at the Warcraft studio made the decision to lighten the image when it went to print. Personally, I like it better darker because it makes the image more mysterious. It also makes the focus of the image much clearer.

Here's another card I did for Warcraft. I'm putting up the German version because it's closer in color to the original, verses the card in English.

Here's a little insight into my process:
When I got the asignment, I was a little intimidated by the scope. I had to paint an elf and pet wolf inside a cavern, surrounded by giant bear-like furbolgs. The object of the card is overwhelming odds -- but the elf and wolf are up for the challenge. The text described the situation as a "sea of furbolgs." (That's a lot of painting!)

I typically start my assignments by sketching my first impression. Once I drew this composition -- with all it's complexities -- I realized this was the one to paint.

Ladies and gentlemen, Sergio Martinez has a blog!

Please stop by and visit with Sergio, he's one of my favorite illustrators. His style, mood and classy images are second to none. I've got a bunch of his illustrated children's books.

Just click on Sergio Martinez to see this blog.

For those of you interested, here's a close up of the Dwarf I painted for World Of Warcraft.

Hey, check out this link my friend Paul Wee sent me. It's a web site with an interactive anatomical reference model.

Each anatomical model can be rotated around as though it were on a spinning table.

Just click on Pose Maniacs to see this blog.

Here are a couple of images I did for Warcraft. If you collect the cards, or play the game, you might already own a few.

These are currently on sale now in the Dark Portal card game campaign.

I have to admit I don't play the card game, or play the computer game. I did play Warcraft II years ago, and that was hugely entertaining, but in Warcraft III the game changed and it wasn't the same. I've been wanting to find a Warcraft II game that will play on my OS 10.4.8. Maybe some of you know where I can find it. I would think it might get bundled with other Mac games.


The second image was a pretty odd illustration assignment. I had to paint a dwarf enjoying some grog. So, I thought it would be funny to make it look like a beer ad. I love my job, where else can I paint a beer ad for dwarves? I did a couple more illustrations that I'll be posting soon. I'm saving the best for last.

Since I'm in the mode of posting faerie doodles, here's another another one.

A couple years back I thought I might end up working on a faerie world project, and so I had contemplated how I would design this world. The project ended up not going anywhere (and in the end dried up and went away), so the images of beautiful faeries were all bottled up in my mind...hence the doodles.

I added a little muted color in photoshop, but little faerie doodle is as it is.

Paul Wee is a tremedous artist, and he also happens to be one of my oldest and dearest friends.

Paul and I went to art school together, and shared a lot of the same teachers. At one point we even lived together in a really scary part of Los Angeles, heh-heh, I've got a few funny stories about the time we got broken-into, the dead body in the parking lot, and about the earthquake. Ah, the good old days. Paul and started our professional careers in the same studio, and used to carpool into work back in those days.

Fast forward 24 years later, Paul Wee now has a blog. Please stop by and say hello. Just click on Paul Wee to see his blog. I've also linked him on my site.

Here's another doodle I found while cleaning my office. I thought it went nicely with the other faerie drawing I did, so I decided to post it. I was lazy, and didn't finish the wings -- but that's the beauty of doodles.

I went ahead and Photoshopped in some nice manilla paper, some texture, and some text, but the drawing is untouched and is as it appears on my paper. It was originally drawn in graphite, along with graphite smudges.

I normally draw with a piece of paper under my hand to keep me from smudging my artwork, and this doodle was drawn on that paper, that's why there are so many graphite smudges alongside the drawing.

My friend David Colman put a book together of many of his doodles, life drawings and animal sketches. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the character design and visual development (and, Bud Plant also recommends the book too). You can find the book on the web at Bud Plant, or at David's site. That's right, go to David's Doodles to buy this book.

David and I worked together on Sony Pictures Animation's Open Season and Surf's Up. He's a tremendous talent.

I was cleaning out my office because they are moving me to another office just a few doors down from where I was. I'm really happy with the room because this room has so much light.

As I was cleaning my office, I came across a ton of doodle sketches I've done. Some for work -- others for play. I thought I would go ahead and post this one I did of a little faerie. I kept the fold across the drawing (rather than Photoshop it out) because it authenticates this doodle.

Never underestimate the power of the doodle. I once had colleague confess to me that he never doodles because he only draws when he gets paid. After which, he plummeted in my esteem. My view of him was later verified when I had the chance to work with him and found his talents only technical – with very little imagination.

For those that want to become visual development artists (or better put, visual problem solvers), it is imperative to doodle. Without doodles an artist cannot cultivate the fertile soils of his/her imagination, but instead will be left to toil in weeds of their self made desert.

Greetings everyone. This is a figure drawing I did last year. It was probably about five minutes or less. Like I said before, our figure drawing class at work doesn't have poses that last much longer than five minutes. On occasion, we may stretch it out to seven or eight, but this one looks like a five minute sketch.

I feel so guilty, I haven't posted since January! Sorry about that everyone.

I drew this one way back when I was working for Disney's Lilo & Stitch back in 1999. I did several drawings for the project where I just took my pencil and my imagination, and wandered around Lilo's town trying to imagine the world from her point of view. I did a aerial shot of her town with a gas station at the entrance. So, this drawing represented Lilo's perspective on the gas station.

I figured she would have the town all scoped out from her sense of priorities. Here, the gumball machine and drinking fountain were the subject of focus. Each one framed in shadow, with the lighted areas blown out. Look at the graphic shape of the light against the counter, notice how I was able to isolate both props, while directing the eye on both items at the same time. I let the light touch the foot of the gumball machine and the corner of the water fountain to hold our focus.

I think it also helped that my dad used to run an auto bodyshop. I used to work there during the summers -- and carried the scent of motor oil in my hair and skin, even after I showered. Even today, when I smell an auto shop, it immediately takes me back. I didn't come from an art family, and THIS was my background growing up.

I drew this one for Disney -- *gasp* ten years ago! Oh, I feel old, especially since my birthday is coming up this Sunday; I'm going to be 42.

OK, when I drew this one back in the day when visual development was drawn on "papyrus," I was playing around with the composition. There are rules about staging, silhouette, composition and focus, and then there are opportunities when you can break them. This was such an occasion.

I wanted the focus to first go to the view of the little harbor, but I slipped a couple subtle silhouettes of some of the characters in the foreground to take you into the foreground – allowing them to become the second-read.

I think I mentioned it before that I really enjoyed working on Disney’s Atlantis. It’s just a shame the story didn’t hold together as well as most of the designs and animation.

I drew this one with graphite and ink and brush on ledger paper.

Remember that event in December at my church where they built a little Bethlehem town -- and my daughter and I performed as the flower vendors? Well, this past weekend we had our wrap party for the cast and crew. We got to see slides and a video presentation of our four days during the event. We also had a chance to mingle with each other, swap stories and eat desserts.

Afterwards, our church gave out the Golden Shekel award to the most spirited contributors, as in organization, construction, training, contribution and performance. Guess what? I won the Golden Shekel for the best performer! It helps that people can't win the award more than once, but I got it!

I won the award for being the nutty flower vendor that wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

I’m not going to kid myself, it’s not the Academy Awards, but you should have seen the expression on my kid’s faces! It might as well have been the Academy Awards when they called me up to the lectern! They were so proud of me, it was an incredible feeling to give them that experience. I always tell them to do the best they can at what ever they do, and here I had a chance to show them that I practice what I preach. The award proudly sits atop our mantle at home...where the kids can see it.

Here's one you won't find in the Open Season book. Actually, the image is in the book, but it is a painted version by then-production designer, Michael Humphries. (By the way, he did a beautiful job using traditional media.)

I highly recommend getting the book, I have to say, it is by far the best Making-Of book I've ever seen, it beats out any Disney Making-Of book. Not only is the artwork stunning, but the way the book was packaged, presented and designed is truly a gem. This book is a must see!

I digress, I drew this image as a test. We were trying to figure out how to stylize the edge of water in how it interacted with the shoreline. We were also testing reflections, atmosphere and of course the stylization.

The end result was stunning -- too bad no one other than us in vis dev had a chance to see it. But, if you saw the movie Open Season, you saw the fruits of such exercises and tests.

The image was drawn using graphite on ledger paper.