Pencil & Ink Illustration: CARTOON CARICATURE

I was asked to do a cartoon caricature of my cousin-by-marriage, who was the Video Editor of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for many years, up until the time Jay was replaced by Conan O'Brien.

This kind of illustration makes me want to get into doing political cartoon work.  Maybe I'll give that a try one day.

Pencils & Inks on Strathmore bristol paper.   

Advertising Color Storyboards: POLITICAL ADS

On occasion, I have worked on storyboarding political campaign ads.  I remain neutral as to whom I work for, because I believe that everyone has their right to free speech, even when my friends on The Right or The Left frown at me for working on something they disagree with.

Posted here are samples of color storyboards I did from a number of political ads for several different campaigns.

Penciled & inked, then colored in Photoshop. 

Advertising Storyboards: TARGET

A long time ago, it was suggested that I produce storyboards for my portfolio that showcased the various ways I was able to deliver them because I apparently didn't have enough to show clients.  I had done all forms of black & white and color frames already, but I couldn't show them to clients because of the non-disclosure contracts I had signed.

Waiting for the commercials I worked on to air so I could finally show my work was preventing me from getting work!  What a catch-22.  Frustrating.

So I decided to produce a sample storyboard based upon a Target commercial that had already aired, breaking up the boards into sections:

- Black & White Pen & Ink

- Graytone Markers

- Color Markers

- Photoshop

I'm happy to say these boards did the trick.  I immediately got work from clients who could finally see that I had the capability to do whatever they needed.  These boards still hold up pretty well, so I thought I'd present them here.  They demonstrate that I can work in any kind of format the client might require.

Nowadays, I no longer work in markers.  I do all my graytones and color work in Photoshop. 

Comic Book Pencils: DC COMICS & MARVEL COMICS - Commision Works In Progress

Sometimes I create way more work for myself than I should.  I did this with two commissions I'm working on for a couple of people.

The first is a DC Comics commission, of which approximately 25 characters were requested that I draw.  I decided to use a 23"x29" piece of plate-finish bristol board to work on.  When I started drawing all the characters, I decided to put more and more characters in, until I literally ended up with 100 characters jumping and flying around.  To add more crazy to the mix, I ended up drawing the city of Metropolis down below, just so I could fit in The Daily Planet globe!

I'm currently just about halfway through inking this piece.  The above picture of the Batman figure is of the beginning of the inking process.  I've since redrawn Superman several times, along with the Shazam! family.  The Spectre (top center) is going to be a very huge challenge, as I'm going to attempt a gray-toned cross-hatching effect that will hopefully blend into the starry sky.  We'll see how that turns out.

This was how I worked out the composition.  I did 3 rough designs on an 8.5"x11" piece of paper, and my client picked the one he liked best, which I went with. 

The second commission I'm working on is a Captain America piece, commemorating the various big events in Captain America's timeline.  This is another piece where I could have just drawn Captain America with a bunch of other Marvel heroes & villains he's interacted with, but I had this idea of doing panel frames.  This idea had me ending up placing about 80 characters into the commission piece, where about 20 would have sufficed.

This piece is 17"x29", this time on 3-ply plate-finish bristol paper.  I actually worked the preliminary piece full size, instead of on small thumbnails, like with the DC piece.  You see in the above picture I took a while ago that I've started inking this already.  I'm about halfway through inking this, even though I started the DC piece much sooner.  I basically go back and forth from the DC to the Marvel piece, working on a figure here, several figures there.

Working on these large boards is a logistical pain in the butt, as I'm 5'6" tall.  My reach isn't the longest, being a short guy.  I'm wrestling with the big size paper, while always avoiding creasing the paper by leaning into it against the edge of the table.  It slows everything down significantly.

I'll post updates of these pieces when I can.  When these are all finished, I plan on spending the ridiculous amount of money to get full-sized scans of these pieces.  Until then, everything's going to be presented to you with digital pictures.

Previsualization / Concept / Environment Design: IGUANA ENTERTAINMENT

Some years ago, I went to visit a friend at Iguana Entertainment in Austin, Texas.  They were best known for developing the Turok, NBA Jam, NFL Quarterback Club, and South Park video games.

As I was visiting there, I talked with the Creative Director & all-around person in charge Matt Stubbington, whom after a brief conversation, surprisingly right off the bat offered me an Art Director's job.  I made sure I asked him to clarify so I wouldn't jump to any conclusions, and he said again plainly that he would like for me to work for him.  We talked for another hour or so afterward, with him telling me about what all was going on in the company, and the various kinds of things he saw me doing for his company, which was very exhilarating.

He also told me about his dream for Iguana, which was to have a place that would be a full-service visual effects & animation studio within five years.  He was basically describing the very place I ultimately got to work at for almost 4 years, Reel FX Creative Studios.  He had mentioned that he wanted to do a promotional video, showcasing all the various kinds of visual effects and 3D character design & animation his company could provide.

He said that it would take several weeks to make a spot for me, indicating nothing but positivity.

I went back home to Denton, Texas, and I started making plans to move to Austin.  At one point, I got it into my head to do a previsualization concept piece of the the promotional video that Matt Stubbington mentioned to me earlier.

The result is what you see above, where I came up with a scenario of a kid playing a video game, when a sunglassed iguana would come through the computer monitor & yank the kid into a video game-type world where our kid encounters & interacts with all sorts of monsters, aliens, tornadoes, again showcasing all the various kinds of visual effects one would see in a great scifi movie.

Matt Stubbington reacted very well to the piece.  He again was very positive about the job offer, and told me that he would be able to call me soon to inform me when he'd want me to start.

Then he simply never called me back.

He never returned any of my phone calls to him.  To this day, I don't know why.  You hear stories about this kind of stuff, and it seems like an exaggeration, even though you know it isn't.  Then when it happens to you directly, you're still surprised.

So, whatever job opportunities that are 'talked about' with you by anyone, no matter how nice and positive they are with what they say... don't believe anything until it actually happens.

A job isn't real until it's real! 

*UPDATE* I'm sorry to say that I never will get to know what happened in the situation I described above.  I got news that Matt Stubbington has died too early in life at the age of 39.  My condolences and sympathies go out to Matt's family and loved ones.

Advertising Comps / Character Design / Full Pencil & Ink Comic Book Art: NEC COMPUTERS

I was assigned one day to do a double-page spread ad for NEC Computers for The Richards Group, a Dallas advertising & branding agency. 

These 'Phenomenal Four' characters were, I was told, to become a series of ads for NEC.  Possibly even animated characters for television commercials.  However, this never came to be, for whatever reason.

I got to design the villainous characters of the ad.  Penciled & inked, with the lettering done at The Richards Group with Comicraft fonts.  The coloring was outsourced.

Comic Book Full Pencil & Ink Art: HOWARD STERN'S FARTMAN

This is a story about how I lost a job that maybe I would or wouldn't have ever been offered, that I never even knew existed until after I saw it in print.  This is a story of how I missed a dream date with Howard Stern's Miss America.

I'd been listening to The Howard Stern Show since January of '86, after I had moved to New York City.  Love him or hate him, it's difficult not to be drawn in to Stern's brand of radio.  Especially since it was - and still is, I believe - the single most interesting radio show ever broadcast.  Stern's show is the ongoing, never-ending round-table of blunt adult talk & play, laugh-out loud humor, and quite simply the most consistently in-depth honest interviews that you will never get anywhere else in this world of canned talk shows.

In December 1993, Stern was planning a Pay Per View live special called Howard Stern's New Year's Rotten Eve.  I had already made my PPV reservation, and was looking forward to enjoying the show while I ate pizza through the new year.  Howard was giving away tickets to the live show from time to time, and I would always try to win a pair.

One day I was about to fall asleep while listening to the show, when another opportunity to win came up again.  I remember dialing the phone half-heartedly, and I would always get busy signals, or the phone would ring until I would be immediately hung up on.  However this time, the phone rang, and I heard the most wonderful words: "Stern show.  Hold on, we'll put you on the air." 

Stern put me on air and told me I won the tickets!  Holy crap!

Before I attended the show with a friend, I wanted to do something fun and goofy.  I ended up drawing the cover you see above, and had the black & white version blown up to poster size, and pasted on a stiff foam core board.  I thought it would be fun to flash it around if the camera ever was pointed at me.

So there I was, at the theater in Newark, New Jersey with a friend, poster in hand.  I was excited to get seated, when one of Howard Stern's regular members of the so-called "Wack Pack", Melrose Larry Green, was raising a ruckus.  He is a frequent caller to the Stern show and is best known for screaming “Murderer” at the top of his lungs while OJ Simpson entered and exited the LA courthouse during his trial.  In person, Melrose Larry was just... creepy.  Seeing him there made me suddenly feel self-conscious about holding my poster, like I would be perceived as much of a disturbing wacko as he was.  

Right then a man walked up and introduced himself, and asked to see the poster I had drawn.  It was Don Buchwald, whom I knew was Howard Stern's agent.  Still feeling creeped out by Melrose Larry, I was very embarrassed to show Mr. Buchwald my Fartman comic book cover.  He liked what he saw and complimented my work, then I moved on from him with my friend telling me I should go talk to him about doing a Fartman comic book!  For some stupid reason, I didn't heed his suggestion.  I didn't have any confidence in myself.

In late 1995, Howard Stern's Miss America hit the bookstores.  I made sure to get a copy, and when I did, my jaw hit the floor.  There was a Fartman comic book printed within the pages of the book!  It was penciled & inked by fellow comic book illustrator (and now incredibly talented storyboard artist) Tom Morgan, who did a fine job drawing the comic book story.

But why wasn't that Fartman illustrator ME?!?  

All I could think of since then was, what if I had made a point of speaking with Don Buchwald about doing a Fartman comic book?  Would that have led to me being the artist on the comic book story instead of being in the position of envying Tom Morgan for doing it instead?  Tom is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, and I was very happy he got to have fun drawing that story.  But could I have been the one to have the pleasure of drawing a comic book of the adventures of the amazing Fartman, for the even more amazing Howard Stern himself?

I will never know the answer to this, and this always drives me nuts when I reminisce about it. 

I will always believe that by not stepping up and speaking with Howard Stern's agent, I absolutely missed any chance to work on one of the most unique projects of all time.

Step up, boys and girls.  TAKE INITIATIVE!  You never know what opportunity you're missing if you don't.

Previsualization / Environment Design: Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY

When Kurt Busiek started his Astro City comic book series, he asked me to do an illustration that would be the background for his 'letters pages'.  What was suggested as a spot illustration on the top of the first page, turned out to be my suggested 4-page spread illustration, muted down in tone to lay underneath the printed letters and information at the end of each issue.

Essentially, I was the first to be able to establish the actual full look of Astro City.  Just a baseline design from which to springboard to the absolutely amazing work Brent Anderson has done over the years, illustrating this incredible comic book series.

Kurt sent me (at that time, I think it was by fax... you know, back in the 'olden' days) a drawing of a map, delineating the various sections of Astro City.  I did 2 passes on it, the first one being the rough concept sketch posted below the Astro City logo, above.  The second was the design you see at the top of this post, which Kurt liked because it looked as if you the reader might be flying above it.

The only Absolute Requirement was to have the Atom symbol atop the tallest building in Astro City be in the very spot that would follow the logo atop the first page of this 4-page letters section of the comic book.

The final piece was penciled & inked, approximately 18" x 47" on a single board.  This being the first ever previs concept design I had done, it was a daunting challenge.  Since I had never worked on something so large before, this piece took me a full month to do, what seemed to be forever and a day to complete.  It didn't help that I really pushed my job up to (and a bit beyond) the deadline, which frustrated everyone.  Especially myself.

With years more experience, I'm definitely a lot more efficient than I used to be.  However, this piece felt like it almost did me in.

Political Cartoon: TOM DASCHLE

Occasionally I work for agencies who are contributing to political campaigns.  Whenever I accept a storyboarding or cartoon job for a political candidate, invariably I find half my friends from either the Right or the Left are angry with me for having "betrayed" their sensibilities for committing such a brazen act as to... well, accept a paying job.

I understand that if I choose to refuse a job because I don't agree with the candidate, that job is going to be done by someone else anyway.  There is passion on both sides of any argument, but I believe that the argument itself should never be stifled or avoided.  That is very much the American way.

Also, for whomever I work, it's my job to give them the best work I can.  In this case, this was very good practice to hone my skills at political/editorial cartooning.  Work done for The Wolf Group. 

Penciled, then inked with a Windsor Newton Series 7 sable hair brush & crow quills.

Advertising Storyboards: HASBRO NERF LAZER TAG

Another job working for Reel FX Creative Studios, who handles many of (if not most) Hasbro toy commercials at any given time, was Hasbro's Nerf Lazer Tag toys.  Hasbro commercials are fun to work on.  One day you'll be storyboarding My Little Pony, then Transformers or Zoids, Super Soakers, or anything to do with Nerf commercials.  It always keeps you on your toes.

Penciled & inked, then scanned & graytoned in Photoshop.

Advertising Comps: WAL-MART / SAM'S CLUB

Sometimes a job will just physically hurt.  This is one of those jobs.

The client assigned me to illustrate 2 ad comps in color, one for Wal-Mart, the other for Sam's Club.  The deadline was tight, as they always are.  However, the Sam's Club comp not only needed an aisle with (what seemed to be) a thousand cases of soda, but every soda had to have a logo on it!

This made what was already a tight deadline into a very painful deadline, because I had to place every logo of all the soda cases individually, at a prolonged fast pace.  After the job was completed, my hand felt gnarled and painful, like it had locked itself into a claw from turbo-working the Wacom pen so much.  It was an extraordinary amount of detail to accomplish in a very short time.

But I'd do it again.  I'm a glutton for punishment that way. :)

Advertising Storyboards: POLITICAL AD

Another political ad that I did for The Wolf Group.   I was told of the kinds of images that were needed, as the script was still being finalized.  Sometimes as with this job, the process is very collaborative, with all the elements coming together in the final mix at the end. 

Penciled & inked, scanned and graytoned in Photoshop.

Advertising Storyboards: HASBRO ZOIDS

Okay, this is how you become a glutton for punishment.  It's bad enough that my hand almost falls off while drawing Transformers storyboards, but now I end up drawing something just as detailed, if not more: Zoids!

Intricately detailed work under a tight deadline.  This is the stuff that makes me have to put my hand in a bowl of ice to recover. . . ouch!  Work done for Hasbro, through Reel FX Creative Studios.

Storyboards penciled & inked.

Advertising Storyboards: POLITICAL AD

I have worked from time to time storyboarding on political ads for candidates, or having storyboarded for ads about a particular measure that is up for a vote.

This is one of those spots, done for The Wolf Group.  Key frames only, as the final script hadn't yet been completed.  

Previsualization / Concept Art / Environment Design: ALIENS COLONIAL MARINES Video Game

Every so often you pitch for a project, and nothing happens.  That's the way it works sometimes.

Brandon Oldenburg from Reel FX Creative Studios asked me to work on a pitch for a job doing environment designs for what I was told to be the Aliens: Colonial Marines video game.  It would have been a nice job to get, to develop all the elements and assets of a complete video game.

I worked up several environment designs in pencil, one of which I finished in ink.  What a great job this would have been, if we had been awarded it.  But alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Oh, well.  On to the next pitch!

Video Game 3D Cinematic Storyboards: ALPHA PROTOCOL

This is another example of working under a very tight deadline.  I finished these inked and graytoned storyboards for the cinematic presentations within the video game Alpha Protocol for SEGA.  I was told that since the boards were primarily 'key frames', I shouldn't do final notations on the boards.

I did these for the incredible Brain Zoo Studios in southern California, working under the direction of President & Creative Director, Mo Davoudian.

Penciled & inked, then scanned & graytoned in Photoshop.

Licensing Artwork: CARTOON BOARDROOM MEETING

I had worked for a while for a company called Promotional Partners Worldwide.  They produced promotional 'premiums', which are toys and other license-related objects or trinkets for fast-food companies and the like. 

PPW called one day, asking me to do an illustration for their company's own promotional materials, to showcase to their clients how their company would be able to handle every conceivable cartoon stylization that could be thrown at them to accomplish.  The only direction I was given was to cram as many various characters based upon current cartoons into the piece as I could.

Penciled and inked, then scanned and colored it in Photoshop. 

I don't get to do a whole lot of this kind of fun finished cartoon work.  I'd love to do more of this!