muffler

I did a few minor tweeks to this character. I added a metal ring where his neck meets his body and a small bolt lower on his body, and a muffler. I can imagine puffs of smoke coming out of the muffler when his engine sputters. I also put a visor cap on him, not sure why, I just thought he needed something there. He's a pretty strange creature, part bird, part man, part machine.

Maori art

It's not a perfectly authentic look, there just isn't a lot of info on Maori art. Looks good anyway.

indian art

Updated pic above.

Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the art of the native Indians. I remember going on a field trip in grade school, to look at Indian art. I had a sketch book and I drew the totem poles and I was in awe of the art. So when the chance came up in a production that we are near the end of to draw something in the tradition of Indian art, I jumped at the chance. I may do some photoshop work to it now, experiment with a filter or a texture.

rough sketches of previous posts

My two favorite COL-ERASE pencils are 20043 BROWN and 20067 PURPLE. I love sketching with those colors. Most animators are so used to sketching with blue that they don't even try other colors. Traditionally non photo blue was used way back in the day when we used film and cameras. In this digital era there really is no reason to stick to blue.

another rejected design

Very much a Bruce Timm and Shane Glines influence here.

rejected character

This design was rejected, she's too innocent looking. My inspiration for her is Avril Lavigne.

same head, different body

Personally, I think the track suit is funnier.

TOONBOOM STUDIO 4

So I purchased ToonBoom Studio 4. It was on sale and I need to learn the ToonBoom interface so I can ease into HARMONY from FLASH. I figured Studio 4 is a less advanced version of Harmony, but the interface is similar, so it's a good start. I spent several hours on it today fooling around with it. I know flash inside out and I can draw and animate with flash very quickly and with ease, but Studio 4 is totally foreign to me. It is taking me a long time just to find the right buttons to press.

she's kinda cute

maybe too cute, in a hello kitty Japanese kinda way. But I like her that way. My favorite color schemes are the top far right and bottom far right.

tweeked the main villain

This is pretty much the final design of this guy. There will probably be a few more tweeks needed when I do the rotation. The red eyes are what really nailed the character as the main villain.

who's the boss?

Just a shot used to sell the design to the client.

sliced bread head and chicken lady

I was asked to design an old woman character, very typical, very uninteresting; as I sketched her jowls and wrinkled chin, a chicken came to mind. So I designed her as a chicken lady. I blame this one on the medication too. There was no way the producer and director were going to accept this. I made a normal old woman into a chicken! I emailed the design anyway, knowing full well it is not at all the character I was given a description of. You can imagine my shock when they told me they liked it. I got away with it again! Bread Head and Chicken Lady!

nerd chic

She's not a nerdy chick, she's nerd chic (pronounced SHEEK).

who needs hair...

...when you have sliced bread!!!! I blame this on all the medication I have been taking. I pinched a nerve in my back and was literally paralyzed for a week. Then in week 2 of the pinched nerve I took tons of muscle relaxants and pain killers, the pills allowed me to stand up and do some work at my computer, but they made me pretty loopy. I came up with this design during that time. The character description I was given made no mention of his hair, bread hair or otherwise...that was all me baby!! I was pretty sure the producer and the director would take one look at this and think I was crazy. But to my surprise...they loved it! Go figure.

with or without an outline

I always found suits and ties to be somewhat surreal. I hate neck ties, I hate wearing suits. But I love drawing them!