Report from the Trenches @ SVA Feb 21st

In just a few weeks I'll be sitting on a panel at the School of Visual Arts talking about working in Animation. I'll be joined by Rick Lacy, Albert Pardo, Mike Carlo, and Maudy Tuseth.

I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about our own experiences in and out of SVA. It should be a pretty good event. I don't think it's open to the public, but if you're reading this and are not an SVA student/ alumnus, I'm sure you could find more info about attending the event through SVA's office of career development, 212.592.2370.

By pure coincidence, David Levy has just posted an interesting op-ed about the differences between the NY animation industry and the LA industry. This has really made me think a lot about my experiences on both coasts and how I can communicate some of what I've learned at the discussion panel at SVA. It should be an interesting discussion.

-Phil

wow

I lost my voice in a matter of minutes and I woke up this morning with a sore throat. It was worth it.

another pinky

Heading back to NYC...

I'll be heading back to New York for a week in late February. Myself and a bunch of the jokers I went to school with are going to be doing a "Report from the Trenches" panel at SVA. I'll post more details as the date gets a little closer.

I attached the following image to an email I sent a bunch of friends back east. I was trying to illustrate the joys of letting Amanda and I crash on a couch for a few days.

*Note* Greg is a real person that in the past has thwarted muggers with a bottle of Arizona iced tea, and during college he did wake me up nearly every weekend before going on his weekly breakfast bagel run.

Sorry about the gratuitous use of bg patterns. But I liked how this one emphasized my yelling. Thanks to the Animation Archive, which is where I grabbed the texture from.

it's been a while

Happy Halloween!

CHOWDER this Friday.... Watch it... my job depends on it.

...'been real busy. be back soon.

A scene I had to add into a Clay Morrow board.

Rod Scribner draws "Rowdy Runner"

Sorry that the last post was so ranty folks. I had to get that out of the system. And it's out.

I got some good news yesterday that I'd like to share... I WON A PRIMETIME EMMY!!! HO-LY SHIT! Someone count the hanging chads!!!

It's for (I believe) Outstanding Achievement in Character Design for The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure.

Wow, I just can't believe it. Big thanks to Maxwell Atoms for forcing me to submit designs from the B&M Movie (I didn't want to). Thanks to Marc Perry for kicking my ass and pushing me in new directions, whether I liked it or not. Seriapio Calm, for enduring the ass kicking along with me. And Frank (i'm butchering your last name) Homiski and Brian Smith for making my designs looks so damned pretty on the screen.

Wowoooowoow! This guy's gotta get a tuxedo.

And without further adieu,

Rod Scribner's "Rowdy Runner"




I hope you enjoyed.
-p

Comic-Condescension

I went down to the Comic Con for a couple of days last week. It was a pretty sweet trip, in hindsight, I wish I had stayed the whole weekend.

I saw some old friends that I hadn't seen in a while and I got to meet some new friends from the good 'ol blogs. But I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to, so that kinda sucked.

One thing that I did find a little disheartening was the now standard over abundance of artist "sketchbooks". I don't know about you, but this guy's a little tired of them. Don't get me wrong, there are some really talented people putting these together, but I just feel like they could be concentrating that energy into a story, or something of equivalent entertainment value. Bravo to the people that put some care into making their own silkscreen prints, or even nice high quality ink-jet ones. Even when the art may not be something I'm necessarily a fan of, I applaud the effort. I'd gladly spend 20 bucks on a nice print than 10 bucks on a mediocre "sketchbook".

The other thing about these "sketchbooks" that particularly got to me this year was the content. When you study drawings by Bruce Timm, Mike Mignola, Travis Charest, Adam Hughes, Shane Glines, Jim Lee, please do us all a favor and keep those drawings to yourself. I'm all for studying artists that you may admire, but when I can recognize an entire drawing (minus the now unclothed chest) as a study (*read copy), please don't put that drawing into your "sketchbook" and sell it as your own. I couldn't believe it, but I actually saw a few incredibly familiar drawings... drawings I knew as my own, but were processed through someone else's hand and brain. Sort of frankensteined with other parts.

Or maybe it's just amazing coincidence.

Or maybe that means that I've finally arrived. Awesome..... I thought it would feel a little better.... probably just coincidence.

Oh well.

...sorry for the rant,
p

p.s. Potter is done. Now I have no excuse for not updating my links.

more junk

Here's a page testing out a brush i made in sketchbook pro. Seems to be a pretty slick program.

I just realized that I haven't updated my links in forever. I'll get to it in about another 600 pages.

-up

another drawing

some self indulgent drawing for a monday.

cya
-p

last 20 at work

I spent the last 20 minutes at work doing some sketching.

Here's the layer that survived the process. I have no explanation.

booty

Drawn by me, Uncle P.
Painted by the incredibly tall, Daniel Krall.

extremes

I've been damn busy. It happens. And it's good.

Since my last post, I bought a house, so that's nuts. I thought about putting a paypal donate button on my blog, I figure it couldn't hurt.

Works been busy, so I don't have any of my own stuff that's worth posting, but here are two drawings of Truffles from an episode of Chowder boarded by Bill Reiss.

I hope you like.




I'll post more eventually.
Phil

What up-dates!?

I've been unbelievably busy lately, so busy that I had the urge to take time and blog about it. The real truth of the matter is that I've been having so much fun working on my current projects, that I wanted to share some images from them. This "e-collage" I made in iScrapbook...( i just typed that as a joke, but check this out) are some of the drawings sitting on my desktop, analog and digital. And yes, both are a complete mess.


I just feel really lucky to be able to work with some of the coolest people on some of the most fun projects. There's a lot of shit out there, from people to jobs, and I feel really grateful to be where I am, doing what I do (or trying to do in most cases).

...wow...I really feel like an emo-blogger now.

I'm so lame.

oh well.

Something I did for the lady.. (sorry about the foul language mom... i swear I learned it from grandma)


That's it for tonight.

-UP

listening to: Morissey and Joy Division... obviously

stolen time

Snuck in some doodle time today... this very moment, to be exact.

Thought I should post something.. so here ya go.



I've been super busy lately. I guess that's good.
talk soon,
Phil

oh yeah and... buy Venture Bros Season 2 dvds for the whole family.

King Triceps: a Billy and Mandy design

Here are some drawings of King Triceps. He was for an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy entitled "Hey, Water You Doing?". It was boarded by Mr. Ian Wasseluk. Ian likes doing spoof jokes, and Triceps was one of those. He's part King Triton from The Little Mermaid and part Macho Man Randy Savage. It was a fun (and difficult) episode to draw. There were a ton of new characters in this one.

Designing on Billy and Mandy was kind of tricky. The show tends to be a mish-mash of design sensibilties. The characters have a lot of very graphic elements, but also tend to be equally fleshy. I was constantly trying to find my balance of those two things. My attempts, successful or not, were always fun to create. And I really credit Maxwell Atoms for trusting his designers, and allowing us to experiment quite a bit on our own.

At times, this made for some of my most confident drawings, and at other times I felt lost in the woods behind the Oakwoods playing with fire crackers.

The nice thing was that I had quite a bit of reference from previous seasons to refer to when I really got stuck.

...this is sort of a tangent, but....

C.H. mentioned on his blog, the difficulties in breaking down his personal style on Chowder so that us designers could use similar theories. This was and will always be a very effective and direct method of getting into the head and hand of the guy that pretty much did the first set of drawings straight from his gut. But hat I find to be the best way to create designs that match the spirit of a new show is to really look at work that may have influenced the creator/designer. So besides trying to look at every scrap of paper with a drop of the Greenblatt magic, we're looking at a lot of Aragones, Coker Jr., Bradfield, Toriyama, and Scarry. It's been a really fun and educational ride.

... off the tangent...

I just realized that I've posted 2 different sets of mermaid designs from B&M, I swear I don't have a mermaid thing.

well... maybe a little bit,
phil

...and a big thanks to Amanda for making me that sweet "Uncle Phil" stamp you see on those designs.

even more Chowder scraps

Dear lovely Carl,

I made this picture for you, but you picked a different picture. That's okay. I liked the picture you picked the best. So now, I leave this picture for everyone else to see. Even though they aren't as lovely as you.

see you in gym class,
Phil

Chowder Head

Sorry for the lack of posts. The past few weeks have been extremely busy and I'm feeling a little under the weather right now. I did find some time to catch up on my Battlestar Galactica. I suggest that everyone else catch up as well.

Here's a sketch of Chowder that I happen to like. I'm not sure if i still like it after the somewhat self-indulgent photoshop job.




hitting you with the deuces,
Phil

feeling: hot and stuffed up
listening to: a fan and some sniffles

Girl Sketches

Over at the Meathaus blog, they posted a link to some new images from a REAS (Todd James) gallery show. Todd's work is crazy inspirational to me. His work is full of childish energy filtered through an adults eye. He's one of those guys that really makes it look easy... And he's an incredibly nice guy.

After looking at Todd's work early friday morning, I spent any doodle time during the day to put together this page. There are some moments I like, many I don't. I'm particularly pleased with those red hands and the topless girl on the right side of the page. I definitely enjoyed playing with a red sharpie.



Bomb pops, bloody hammers, Steel Battalion,
Phil