Here you’ll find an exploration on how to make a living, by being creative. This blog gives you a little bit of a window into the day in the life of a Simpsons artist, who’s doing his own art on the side. You’ll also get an insight into what goes on in an artist’s brain. As well, as how he tries to improve his skills and his way of life with his creativity.
He also draws things that will hopefully make you laugh, or at the very least, crack a smile.
I’m a Storyboard artist on The Simpsons TV show and The Simpsons Movie. I drew Simpsons comics, on the side, for Bongo Comics for 12 years as well. Author of The Art of Draw Fu: Beginners Level. I live in California with my wife, daughter and four sons who I love very much. I’m Roman Catholic and I was born in El Salvador.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Confessions of a Simpsons Assassin, Part 2
Simpsons Quote:
Grimes: You idiot! You almost drank a beaker full of sulfuric acid!
Homer: Acid, eh? Jeez, that would have been STUPID! (laughs) Wow, would my face have been red! (laughs again)
The first assassination job Director Jim Reardon ever gave me was to kill Frank Grimes. He just handed me the scenes and I went to work.
The sad part was, that I REALLY ended up liking Frank Grimes a lot. So much so that this became my favorite SIMPSONS episode.
I put A LOT of myself in the acting and mannerisms of Frank Grimes and I’ll talk about that below.
BUT by the time the animatic was finished, the deed was done. The weird fat guy, Frank Grimes, was dead.
What’s that you say? Frank Grimes isn’t fat? Did I take out the wrong cartoon character?
Hmmm, well here’s the story…
The Original Frank Grimes
The Frank Grimes I killed was a fat guy. He had a body like Homer’s and had a bit of “pin head”.
The animatic had this version of Frank Grimes in it.
I was given some pretty heavy acting scenes with Frank and I was really having a good time with them.
I was really proud of my work on them.
Then…after the animatic, we found out that the writers and producers weren’t happy with what Frank looked like, so he had to be redesigned.
Every scene he was in was going to have to be reworked.
I was part of Jim’s permanent crew so I had was part of the revision team. So we folded up our sleeves and got to work.
A Peek at My Scenes
Frank, Lenny and Carl talk about Homer’s eating. Definitely my scenes. I have the thumbnails to prove it.
I don’t think I originally did the scene below but I know I revised it. Making Homer’s movement more duck like:
The scene below was a pain to layout. It’s definitely a cheat. I wasn’t able to capture the whole scene to show you but believe me when I say, it’s very odd looking.
The melting of the wall took a lot of time to do. I made up the weird shape the wall melted into. I just let my pencil wander and that’s what I ended up with. I didn’t think they would use it as the final drawing:
Frank’s acting below was one of the many over the top moments I got to do. There’s my “claw” hands on Frank. I was able to go really broad and wild with all of his expressions. This stuff was really fun to do.
And the Emmy Goes To…
Okay, so, this is something it never occurred to me that I’d be able to do til I started writing this post. I can ACTUALLY write about my favorite acting moments I’ve ever done on an episode.
These are it. The scenes with Frank confronting Homer and his family below, are the most personal scenes I’d ever done. There was only ONE other moment on an episode that came close.
But these scenes with the family, are all me. I was REALLY into this:
I practically memorized Franks speech. I internalized it. I listened to it over and over and acted it out myself.
I FELT what Frank felt. I BECAME Frank and I just went for it here.
I’d only do this one other time in an episode.
Those hand gestures and the mannerisms he has in this sequence, that’s all me when I get frustrated.
For it to have come out the way I wanted it to without me being able to time it myself, was a great joy and relief.
PLEASE go watch the show and pay attention to Frank in this section. The screenshots above don’t really show what I’m talking about.
I think it’s the best acting I ever did in an episode.
The Death of Grimes
I lOVED drawing and acting out Frank’s freak outs. The scenes below really show how broad and cartoony I was allowed to go with him.
I mean, LOOK I even did a multiply arm effects on him:
And here, in the scenes below, you can see how I was doing multiple arms AGAIN. It’s a VERY unSimpsons thing to do and I got away with it.
I’m really surprised the goofy walk above came out as good as it did considering the artwork I gave the Koreans to work with.
I ended up working on MORE Frank Grime scenes after the animatic than before the animatic. Mostly because we had to revise his model.
I think I worked on about 50% of all the scenes Frank is in. The other artist who worked a lot of Frank’s scenes was the Assistant Director Mark Ervin. If you pay close attention, you can tell which one of us did what scenes by how skinny Frank is.
I tended to draw Frank much skinner. Just look at the skinny arms on Frank in the shot below:
Mark would make Frank a bit chunkier and thicker.
The scene below is a combination of both my scene and Mark’s scene. He revised my drawings. That Mr. Burns looks WAY too nice looking to be one of mine.
You’ll notice that Frank changes in the scene from being thicker to, super skinny, to being a thicker again:
The shot where Frank stand in front of the cables as well as the ones where he grabs the cables. Where originally drawn by me with the fat Frank. But after animatic, I revised them and then Mark revised my drawings. I guess my Frank’s where getting a little TOO skinny.
The reaction shot below was totally me though. Just look at Smithers with his “anime acting” and Homer with his “claw” hand.
So there. Forgive me for tooting my own horn. This is the acting work I’m most proud of.
Hamlet and Grimes
I remember when I was working on this episode, I had become obsessed with Shakespeare. Yes, I’m a HUGE nerd, so what else is new.
Anyway, during this time, I was absorbed with HAMLET (still my favorite Shakespeare play). I couldn’t get enough of it. I started memorizing LINES from the play, for goodness sakes. FOR FUN!
And OF COURSE, working on this episode made me think how much like HAMLET this episode was.
I even went up to Jim and explained to him all the things that made this episode like HAMLET. I wish I had recorded myself or had written it down because…I can’t remember AT ALL why I thought that.
I TRIED to remember. I wanted to share my thoughts about it here, but I can’t remember.
Stoopid memory.
From a purely superficial level, all I can think of is that they both start with tragedy, they’re both about the lead’s obsession with point out the truth to the people around him, which leads to the death of the lead character.
Perhaps this is what I told Jim…I dunno.
“Words words words.” – Hamlet
… great…now I want to watch HAMLET…again.
Sketches in the E-mail
In this week’s e-mail, I had a special surprise. As I was looking through my old drawings earlier this week, I found some pages of thumbnails that I had done specifically for THIS episode.
In them you saw a very small hint of what Frank Grimes originally looked like. You also see the thought process behind some of the acting I did.
There’s was also some other non-Simpsons related doodle on the page I drew. Mostly girls sketches.
Anyway, that’s what I sent out as an e-mail this week to everyone who’s on my e-mail list.
If you want to have this e-mail sent to you, put in your e-mail below before Thursday of next week and I’ll resend the e-mail to you soon after. Don’t miss out again.
After working a full day at the studio I also write 1 1/2 blog posts a week (one here and one for The Drawing Website, where posts take two whole weeks to write), and two e-mails full of content. On top of that, I’m editing my wife’s book, AND helping to taking care of my kids when I get home. Not to mention I’m putting that “thing” together that I mentioned in last week’s post.
I’m NOT complaining, I CHOSEN to do this. One of the highlights of my week was drawing that kung fu drawing above. I’m REALLY proud of it. It was FUN and I learned a lot doing it.
STILL, I think I’m over doing it. I’ve got to find a way to still provide good content on my sites without killing myself.
I haven’t quite figured out how though. Any suggestions?
In this week’s Drawing Website post, I experimented for the first time with video. I might start using it here in this site. Maybe if I do more talking and less writing, things will take less time. I’m not sure.
I still want the writing part of my blog though.
Anyway, expect some changes in the next few weeks as I start experimenting. I can’t keep up this pace.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Confessions of a Simpsons Assassin, Part 1
Simpsons Quote:
“I don’t judge Homer or Marge. That’s for a vengeful God to do.” – Maude Flanders
I’m not exactly sure why but Director Jim Reardon had me kill people. By people, I mean, Simpson characters.
I killed two Simpsons characters for Jim. One of them was Maude Flanders.
The Job
It wasn’t an assignment that was particularly different from any other I’d been given. He just handed me the scenes, gave me some direction as to what he wanted to see me do in them, and then I went to my desk and worked got to work.
Of course there where pretty girls in the sequence, but I spent most of my time making Homer’s belly fat, extra wobbly. Overall, that was the biggest challenge in working on those scenes aside from drawing a ton of crowds.
That said, I DO have a little anecdote to tell about the scene that isn’t known at all.
The Rewrite
There was a rewrite in that particular scene. A revision from what was originally there.
In the original version Homer does his little stomach wobble asking for the t-shirt. Just as the shirt is going to be launched at him, he looks down,
“Ooh, a gumball,” he reaches down to get it and Maude gets hit and goes over the rail.
After the animatic, Homer looks down,
“Ooh a bobby pin,” he reaches down to get it and Maude gets hit and goes over the rail.
It was a fun little assignment. I didn’t really think it would end up being such a big moment in Simpsons history.
E- mail Give Away
Anyone who is signed up to my e-mail list will get a free “thing”.
In this week’s e-mail, I sent out a sneak peek of what that thing is.
As soon as it’s ready, it’s going to be given to everyone on the list. Anyone who wants it can have it if you opt in, but the current group will get it before anyone else, once it’s ready.
If you want to be among the first to get it, sign up now. I’ll send you the e-mail revealing the “thing” if you sign up before next Thursday.
PODCASTS/WEBSITE – The Rotoscopers
How much into animation are you?
If your any kind of an animation nerd at all or WISH to be, your doing yourself a great disservice by not checking out The Rotoscopers’ podcast and website.
You want to know what’s going on in the animation world from a VERY well informed fan’s point a view? Follow:
and Mason Smith as they geek out about anything and everything animation related.
You’ll learn A LOT about animation.
I’ve listen to almost all of their shows and it’s really reminded me of how great the animation industry can be.
Believe me when I say that, when you’re sitting on this side of the fence, you can forget why you got in this industry to begin with. Listening to the passion The Rotoscopers have for animation, is a breath of fresh air.
I like it when there are things out on the net that educate extroverts on what it actually means to be an introvert.
I also like thing on the internet that help introverts have an easier time living AS an introvert in a world run by extroverts.
The video below does both and I love it. It’s also really well done. Check it out:
BOOKS – Dark Rift
I’m currently reading through the manuscript for DARK RIFT, the sequel to my wife‘s book THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST. I’m half way through the book and it’s really an exciting read.
That said, I’m REALLY being picky about it and I’ve written tons of notes. I want her book to not just be a good read, but a read you can’t put down.
To that end I’m reading the book, looking for ways to really punch up what my wife has already put there.
Sometimes we discuss the book and the story over dinner. We talk about ways she can play things up in the story and make things clearer. It’s really fun.
Especially since I get to come up with ideas without having to actually execute them (which is the hard part).
I made sure my wife told me nothing about the story, so when I read it, I could read it as an audience member. That way, I could gauge whether or not the story was really working well.
The DARK RIFT manuscript has some gut wrenching intense parts in it.
I’m happy to say it is. I just read a part where something really crazy happens to some characters I really liked and I’m like,
“Nooo, that didn’t just happen!” Which I think is AWESOME. That’s the reaction I WANT to have reading the book.
My wife wants to have the book published by the end of October but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Even if I manage to finish reading the manuscript in a week or so, I still need to draw the cover and write the back of the book description.
Once that’s done, we have to plan a proper launch for the book so we can get as many eyeballs on it as possible.
All this stuff takes time do.
That said, keep an eye out for the book. Hopefully, I’ll be ready by next Month.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Breakdown of a Simpsons scene: Itchy and Scratchy trying to Kill Bart and Lisa
I explain this crazy drawing below.
Simpsons Quote:
“Facts are meaningless. You can use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true.” — Homer Simpson
I’ve animated on The Simpsons, quite a few times. By “animated”, I mean, done it all. From key poses to inbetweening to putting all the info on exposure sheets.
One of the times I did this was on Treehouse of Horror IX, when Itchy and Scratch chase Bart and Lisa into the Live with Regis and Kathie Lee show.
Basic Animation Principles
When you first learn to animate, one of the first things you’re taught to animate is the “bouncing ball”. It is meant to teach you the animation principle of squash and stretch. It’s usually the second lesson you’re taught in animation. The first lesson being “ease in” and “ease out”. Sometimes using a pendulum swinging or a ball starting to roll down a slant.
What am I talking about?
Okay, real quick, in case you don’t know:
Got this picture at: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MichaelJungbluth/20110114/6788/Adding_Weight_to_Your_Game_Design_Part_6_Slow_In_Slow_Out.php
“Ease in” and “Ease out” – is when an object, like a pendulum, slowly begins moving and then speed up as it moves forward. When it reaches the other side it slows down do to gravity and then slowly swings the other way.
In animation, in order to get this effect, you put more drawing in the slow parts and less drawing in the fast parts causing a “easing into” and “easing out of” effect.
Almost every action an animator animates has an “easing in” or “easing out” component.
Got this picture at: http://mattsfdablog.blogspot.com/2011/10/principles-of-animation.html
“Squash and stretch” – is an animation principle where an animated object is deformed (without changing it’s mass) for a single frame of film, either by squashing or stretching, in order to get a sense of weight or impact. Like when a ball hits the floor and bounces back up.
So what does this have to do with the episode? Read on.
Bart and Lisa Fall in Soup
Steve Moore, my director, asked me if I wanted the assignment doing this live action scene and I jumped a the chance. I talked up my animation skills to get it. It had been years since I had gotten a chance to fully animate anything. On top of that, I had never worked on anything quite like this either.
To be quite frank, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it. I was telling Steve how much experience I had, but really, it was only from a few animation tests I’d done. This would be something outside of my experience.
When I got my scene folder, it was full of pre-pegged Photostats . Photostats, are frame by frame photos of a of live action scene. This is what I was going to use in order to draw the characters interacting with the live action.
The one thing that you don’t see in the final version that was present in my Photostats, was the tennis balls that where dropped into the pot in order to make the splashes. I covered the balls with the characters.
So I’m sitting there looking at the stats, roll up my sleeves and just start animating as I do it all the time. I just went for it.
All those hours of sitting in “the little dark room” for Jeff , all the tests I’d done for classes, years of drawing the characters, and anything else I could draw upon, kept me going.
As I worked, it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t really doing anything complicated at all. Just because I was drawing characters with legs and arms didn’t mean that I was animating anything I hadn’t done before.
As I worked on the scene, it became VERY clear that I was basically animating a variation of the bouncing ball test. Let me show you.
Keep in mind that the screenshots I’ve got below are not the best representation of the drawings I would have liked to capture. The method I use to get the screen captures was really imprecise:
Okay so taking a look at the screens above, in screen 1 you can see Lisa and Bart in a very strange pose. This would be a “not-so-deformed” stretch pose.
When Bart gets out of the pot, I drew a more stretched out drawing but was unable to capture it, so we have the drawing in screen 2 where he’s actually at the peak of this “ease out”.
Then he “stretches” in 3, landing with one foot first, in order to make it more natural looking.
In screen 4, he lands and that’s the “squash” pose.
He “stretches” again in 5, as he takes to the air.
In 6 I didn’t quite capture the apex of his jump, but I did get Lisa’s “squash” pose.
7 is Lisa’s “ease out” pose and then her stretch on screen 8. That’s that, the rest is just the kids running off screen.
Having done that, I was then able to do Itchy and Scratchy easier. I went out of my way to really push them more since they’re “cartoons”:
Alright, so I start with a subtle stretch of the two character in screen 1 as they fall.
As Scratchy leaves the pot in screen 2 I really stretched him out. He looks deformed.
Then in screen 3 I REALLY do something crazy. This is a “smear”. This kind of effect was used a lot in Looney Toon cartoons when a character had to do a quick action in only one frame. I needed Scratchy to end up in the pose on screen 4 without having to use up any frames to do it, so I did this crazy blur effect.
When you look at the final animation, you can’t even see it unless you’re looking for it. It happens so fast. It totally works.
Screen 5 is Scratchy “easing out” of the apex of his jump and then stretching to to land in screen 6.
Screen 7 we see Scratchy in his “squash” position. Itchy is now out of the pot, BUT if you go frame by frame, you will see that Itchy also had a crazy blur effect with his knife. I wasn’t able to capture it though.
In Screen 8 you can clearly see Itchy stretching as Scratchy “eases out” of his jump.
I REALLY stretch Itchy in screen 9. He’s really fighting gravity as it pull down on him.
Just for fun and variety, I had Itchy do a flip when he jumped, as you can see in screen 10.
It turned out looking good. After worrying about the scene and whether or not I was going to be able to pull it off, it turned out to be really simple and really fun. It just required, mostly, basic animation knowledge with just a touch of advance know how.
Special E-mail Surprise
So in THIS week’s e-mail, I posted a very special surprise. I happen to own a photocopy of the manuscript that became: Character Animation Crash Course! By (Disney animator) Eric Goldberg (who designed and animated the Genie in Aladdin). Yes, it’s an affiliate link.
I used this manuscript in order to figure out how to do the “smear” effect on Scratchy. There’s a page in the manuscript that explains it. I don’t own Eric Goldberg’s book, so I can’t say whether or not the page I’m referring to is in it.
What I have done though is pasted the page in the e-mail I sent out this week. That way, even if you own the book, you can see the original manuscript page where it came from.
If you want to get this e-mail, simply opt in to the e-mail this week BEFORE next Thursday and I’ll resend the e-mail.
If you’re not receiving my e-mails, your missing out on a lot of fun stuff like this.
Alright, so the drawing on the left doesn’t look like much, but believe me when I say that, the post this drawing belongs to will change the way you look at cartoon characters.
I really went all out on this new post and you have not idea how excited I am for you to read it.
Whether you’re a real beginner or much more advanced at drawing, this post has info on design that you might have never heard before.
In fact, I know a lot of professional draftsmen, who don’t know some of what I’ve written in this post. The crazy part, is that I do it all with stick figures!
If you’ve ever wanted to learn to draw cool stick figures, this is the post for you.
Check it out, give it a read, and leave me feedback about what you think.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – See How Easily you can Take a Simple Composition and make it Epic, Simpsons style.
The Simpsons quote:
Marge: Homer, we can’t take his money. Homer: Aww, I can’t take HIS money, I can’t print MY OWN money, I have to WORK for my money. Why don’t I just lay down and DIE.
Sometime, late in 2001, I was fortunate enough to have worked on one of the funniest episode of season 13, HALF-DECENT PROPOSAL.
This was director Lauren MacMullan’s second episode.
Lauren is an incredible director. The show turned out looking fantastic. This was in no small part, due to her great staging and cinematography.
She isn’t credited with storyboards on the episode and I don’t recall what they looked like but, her dynamic style comes through never the less.
The thing that really stands out to me about this episode looking back is drama and depth of many of her shots.
My personal contribution to the shots was to try to keep the horizon line low where appropriate. This was made easier by the fact that the shots had been set up with so much depth already that it made it all come together that much better.
By depth, I mean that many shots had been set up with clear foreground elements, middle ground elements and background elements.
When you go out of your way brake down compositions this way, you can’t help but to come up with some beautiful, epic shots.
The Epic Shots
Below are samples of shots from sequences I worked on that illustrate my point:
Artie in the foreground + Marge and Homer in the middle ground + Helicopter, ocean and sky in the background + low horizon = one really nice shot.
The shot above, could have been easily staged with Artie walking sideways, “comic strip style” from one side of the boat to Homer and Marge. Instead the shot is of Artie walking toward camera in perspective, stopping to talk the Homer and Marge in the foreground. It’s much more interesting and dynamic.
It’s always best to try to find ways to get character to walk in and out of the picture. It adds interest.
Centered composition with a low horizon to add interest. The low horizon makes sure that the frame isn’t split right in the middle, making the sky more dominant. Homer and Marge are in the foreground adding depth.
Once again, low horizon to give the sky dominance put not a straight on composition like before. This time with a two point perceptive to make sure elements in the shot aren’t parallel to the “picture frame” (that was my decision). Artie in the extreme foreground adding depth. I don’t think the board looked quite like this. I plussed it up a bit.
Another one of my sections. Homer in the extreme foreground, Marge in the middle ground, the rest of the room in the background. Very interesting shot.
I was really having fun with this stuff. It was all about drawing pretty pictures. Marge in the extreme foreground with Homer in the background. Angled shot makes it much more interesting to look at.
Not every shot can have a foreground element. How do you make it interesting? Two point perspective creating angle that go against the picture frame helps.
I just like this shot and I’m proud of the way it came out. I had to draw the shadows too.
I worked on two, maybe three full shots in the dance hall. I was mostly doing the scenes with Marge, Patty and Selma in this act.
I was put on revisions in this sequence, mostly to draw the crowd in the back. That said, the scene above IS one of the few I did.
Again, instead of Marge simply walking sideways “comic strip style” to the door, we see her recede in space, adding interest and depth.
I’ve written a lot about working with director Jeff Lynch. Oddly enough, working with Lauren often reminded me of working with Jeff. Just like Jeff she also storyboarded and allowed us to animate a little bit more than usual, but also just like Jeff, she wasn’t afraid to do a some crazy camera moves like the one on the right.
Mid-shot of Marge for her line, then she turns and walk out the door as the crowd parts (big pain in the neck to draw).
The camera pulls out to reveal Artie in the foreground (camera cheat). The camera “spins” around him as he put on his glasses and watches her walk away. This basically mean you animate Artie spinning in place 180 degrees with a slight camera adjust, while the background characters are panned across really fast.
I don’t actually remember drawing Artie in the scene but I think I must have. It’s possible I didn’t. I DO remember working out the technical aspects of the scene and putting the crowd in.
I also remember drawing Marge. That is definitely MY acting she’s doing. Look at that finger sticking up. Why did I do that? I don’t know but it’s was me alright.
My Act 3 work was the whole oil rig sequence beginning with the ride in the bus and the “Mount Carlmore” gag.
Lauren really assigned me a doozy of a section:
Beginning with this scene above with a hand drawn animated lens flair I had to put in. AND animated shadows on the bus.
And then there’s this crazy shot here on the left. It’s a total cheat that works. The camera moves so fast you don’t see how odd the layout actually is.
Fire in the foreground, characters in the middle ground, PLUS dutch angle. Very dramatic. The fire, was the bane of my existence. It was such a pain to draw. It took me the most time.
Aaaah! THREE POINT PERPECTIVE! Actually, the shot above was fun to draw and it looks cool. I’ve very happy with my Homer and Lenny in this shot. It’s not an angle that you draw the characters in often.
Foreground, middle ground and background elements in it as well. The fire and SMOKE made my life hell.
Another three point perspective angle. Lenny as the foreground element. The fire was awful to work on…
Did I mention the I didn’t like drawing the fire?
Less fire on this one. Very dramatic up shot. Homer and Rig are the foreground elements, helicopter is the middle ground element, sun is the background. Everything is angled to avoid being parallel with the picture frame.
And my final example:
Marge and Homer in the foreground frame Artie as he struggles to get in the Helicopter. Fun stuff to draw here. I especially like that I got to animate that quote I posted at the beginning of the post (full circle!). It makes me laugh.
This is a great episode. There are people out there that complain that later episodes of the show, stop being funny. This one is one of the many episodes that prove them wrong.
My Life with Baron Von Kiss-A-Lot.
I worked on a lot more scenes than the ones I mentioned above. Including this one:
Yup, that’s right, I drew the Baron.
Which is the subject of this week’s e-mail. I write about my thoughts and experiences with the Baron. As well as what I think about this gag.
If you want to read about this, opt in to the e-mail.
The e-mail has been sent out already, BUT if you opt in before next Wednesday, I’ll resend it just for you.
FAMILY – Poor baby Luke as the Flu
My poor one year old son has the flu. He’s miserable.
If you’re a parent you know you’d rather be sick then have you’re kids be sick. Especially when you see them feeling so bad.
It’s also, especially tough on my wife since she’s the one who has to put up with all the poopin’ and pukin’.
The baby has puked on my wife quite a few times already.
Baby Luke has had some issues with over filling his diaper, to my wife’s dismay
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – A Lesson, Indirectly Learned from Brad Bird.
Simpsons quote (…sort of):
“When in doubt, lower the horizon line” – Brad Bird
The quote above was taped to Simpson Director Steve Moore’s office door.
It had a self-caricature of Brad Bird happily pushing down a line while he stared straight at you. It was obviously an enlarged copy of a doodle/note that Brad Bird had written Steve at some point.
That thing was taped to Steve’s door for YEARS. The only reason it isn’t anymore, is because we moved to a new studio and I think Steve forgot to post it up.
I’ve worked for Steve more than any other Director on the show. He’s been really good to me, and he even championed me to have the current position I have now. For which I’m truly grateful.
Going in and out of his office for all those years and seeing that note posted on his door, insured that I would have that quote embedded into my brain forever.
So, what does that DO to a person?
What it Did to Me
Just because I had a studio job didn’t mean that “I had arrived”. Through out my years on the show, I’ve also taken years of drawing class. Almost all of which where taught by industry professionals. And none of them gave me a grade nor college credit.
I took them, NOT to have a sheet of paper TELLING people I was TAUGHT to draw. I took them so I could SHOW people I CAN draw (and I still try to go figure drawing every week).
One of the classes I took was an animation development class. It was like what would probably be called a “Concept Art” class only for animation. Part of what was taught in that class was how to create well designed and composed environments.
The reason I bring this up is because of the enormous influence that class had on me and my work from that point on. That class, combined with Brad Bird’s quote made me hyper aware of how I could improve the layouts of the scenes I had to work on.
The Result
Sometime in 1996, I worked on the episode BART AFTER DARK.
I believe this was around the time I was taking my development classes. My mind was reeling with the theories of dynamic compositions.
So what happens when you learn something new? Well, you can’t WAIT to try it out, of course.
Director Dominic Polcino, handed me a VERY involved section of the show. Lot’s of crowds and destruction. I couldn’t WAIT to apply what I had learned in my classes. So I took one look at the storyboards that were given to me of the scenes I was to layout and I did what Brad Bird had brainwashed me to do.
I lowered the horizon line.
In case you don’t know what that means, to put it simply, I lowered the camera in just about every single shot.
Behold, the sequence that is almost all up shot:
Okay, so the sequence begins with the scene above of some of the characters walking to the gate. The board had the shot composed with the camera at about eye level. I lowered it. The result was a much more dynamic angle on the characters and a more interesting size comparison.
As I was working on these scene, the biggest challenge I faced was the character designs. The Simpsons just aren’t really designed to look good in any other angle besides 3/4 view. When you lower the camera, you really have to solve the design so that it looks right.
For example:
The scene above was really difficult. The women had lip stick and needed to still look pretty and “on model” but how far back should I draw the bottom lip? How much should I push the overbite?
Well, I ended up cheating by diminishing the overbite a bit. Then they looked okay. But it took a few tries to get that right.
And then there’s Helen Lovejoy:
She’s got a one of the strangest designs on the show. Drawing from any angle is tough but from a low angle was just painful. I don’t think I got it right but it worked okay for this scene.
Again, I think this shot also had a much more straight forward composition but I lowered the horizon line. I also think the board had the characters in the background much more straight on and flat. I added two point perspective here and made the crowd more interesting to look at.
In the drawing of Belle above, I really “squared off” her face to work with the perceptive of the drawing. I literally drew her face as a box and put her features on it.
Once again, I lowered the horizon line on this drawing. The version of the shot in the storyboard was a little more straight forward.
OH, and by the way, can you tell I was having a little too much fun drawing the women? Yeah, I was single at the time. Sorry.
That said, drawing women is really really fun. Simply ask, just about any female artist. It’s usually their favorite subject to draw.
BIG pan on this one. A lot going on. This one took a while.
Helen knocking over plants, Maude stomping, Apu on a tree, Frink chopping down the tree, Otto throwing rocks, Jimbo jumping the fence.
And the cop coming toward camera had to work within the perceptive I had established.
Oh, and there goes Ned running in the background with a torch.
Below is yet another two point perspective with a low horizon:
I really posed out the stair climbing by Homer on this one.
You can really see that it was me who did this scenes because it has some of my “stand by acting”. Belle has her arm in front of her with a “claw” hand. I tend to draw the “claw” hand a lot.
And if you look at the blond woman in the back, she has her fist up in front of her and her shoulder up. That’s my “I’m worried” Anime acting.
Low horizon again. Not the best moment to have gotten a screen grab of. Twin hand acting, is bad.
This is one of the few scenes where I didn’t over pose the women in the background.
Above we have, two point perceptive, low horizon and the Background artist didn’t re-draw my fountain. It was drawn fast and rough. I though the Background artist was going to put it on model. I’m not sure why it didn’t happen.
I made up the look of the mermaid on the fountain thinking it would be re-drawn. I made it look a bit like The Little Mermaid. No, I don’t have ANYTHING against the movie or character.
I remember drawing Moleman here, and it was a pain in the neck.
The scene was never meant to be seen like this. It’s cheated quite a bit. The camera move was meant to hide the perceptive cheats.
Above is another bad screen grab. Twinning again. Low horizon and two point perceptive.
Oops! There goes the Little Mermaid.
And above we have the final low horizon line shot of the sequence. A two point perspective AND Anime acting.
The thing about setting the camera down low is that you tend to get an interesting variety of sizes and shape, pretty quickly. It’s almost, instant depth of field. Especially if you have a foreground element like Homer above.
High Horizon Line
The next two scenes below have a high horizon line.
Believe me, I tried to lower the horizon but the director wouldn’t let me.
when it comes to crowd shots, I often try to compose them with a low horizon line, that way you only draw one visible row of people and the rest of the crowd is obscured behind the first group. It’s less to draw.
Couldn’t get away with that in the shot below:
Yeah, the shot above was time consuming. And there’s Homer with my Anime acting.
OUCH! Yet another screen grab with bad twin hands acting. Don’t try this at home kid.
Had I tried this shot from a low angle, the crowd would have blocked Homer.
This shot was done as one long shot and was broke up into three in editing.
Once again, I have my over posed women in the background.
One thing I will say I’m happy with in this scene, is the acting on Homer’s singing where he sings, “Caaaaare”. I thought it worked well.
An Open Message to My E-mail Readers
Thank you so much for responding to my question on last week’s e-mail. I wrote this post in direct response to you giving me feedback.
Next time I promise to respond personally to your e-mail. I’ve come up with a way I could do that which I mention in THIS week’s e-mail.
Again, thank you.
Now, if you’re reading this and haven’t opted in to receive some behind the scenes e-mail and other nuttiness, what are you waiting for?
In the e-mail I sent out this week, I wrote about and posted screenshots, of the sexiest scenes I did on this episode. Scenes which made me hope no one walked into my cubicle and caught me drawing. Very embarrassing.
You’ve missed out on this e-mail already but don’t miss out on the next one.
…well, tell you what, if at least ten people or more sign up to my e-mail list BEFORE next week’s post (next Thursday), I’ll send it out just to those new people too.
Sound good?
WEBSITES – Drawing tools
Do you know what drawing tools you need to get started drawing?
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – 3 Lessons Learned From my First Simpsons Director
Simpsons quote:
“Oh, everything looks bad if you remember it.” – Homer
Last week I wrote about learning a lot from my first Simpsons Director, Jeff Lynch.
I’m gonna quickly sum up three other lessons I learned working on my first official Simpsons show with him.
Lesson The First – Effects
Remember that little dark room I wrote about in the last post?
One of the many times I was sent there was to shoot an effect that was going to play during the Buzz Cola commercial that played on the television, during the episode.
I had no idea what I was doing but I gave it my best shot.
In order to give Jeff the best impression of the shot possible for the animatic, he had asked me to not only shoot the scene, but to actually cut out the shape of the explosion on each sheet of paper.
The reason for this? We shot animation over a lightbox. That way we could see through the paper and see multiple levels of artwork, like the background and other characters…stuff like that.
Well, if you cut our a shape into a piece of paper and put it on the lightbox, it gives a “glow” effect to the empty space.
I cut out, about, six or seven, jagged explosion shapes and shot them.
Jeff looked at the scene, adjusted the timing, told me to add more cut outs or take some out. BUT the most interesting thing he had me do, was to cover up the camera lens for a frame and then, shoot the bright lightbox without a drawing, for a frame.
This gave a quick strobing black to white pop before the Buzz cola appeared.
Because I did this, it made the effect during the animatic really impactful and it sold the scene.
Lesson? I learned to do a cool explosion effect.
Lesson The Second – Antics and Overshoot
Anticipation drawings (Antics) and Overshoot drawings are some of the first things you learn when y0u’re taught to animate.
Antics are drawing animators put in to help the watcher see the action that is going to happen. It’s basically there to telegraph the action, and by doing so, it makes the action look natural. For example, if a character is going to reach for something, they would lift their hand up a little bit away, from the object before actually reaching for it.
Overshoots are drawings that are almost the opposite of Antics. An overshoot is used when a quick action come to a fast halt. It’s a drawing that “overshoots” were the action ought to have stopped, before it settles into place. The effect in the final product makes the action feel natural.
Neither the Antics nor the Overshoots are really noticeable. They are FELT by the watcher, more than anything else.
When I did the scene were Lisa is yelling with the Malibu Stacy doll and shaking her at Bart’s face, I had Lisa Antic and Overshoot as she came closer to the camera. But I over did it.
What I learned from Jeff was how NOT to over do it. He gave me a quick rule of thumb: “Don’t antic, further than the final movement will be, don’t overshoot further than the movement was.
You’d think it would have been obvious to me, but I guess I got a bit too excited with the mechanics.
When I then did the scene where she almost hits Bart with the doll, I did a much better job.
Lesson The Third – The possibilities of animation
I was then asked to do the scene where Lisa throws the doll out the window. I did my best but it just wasn’t what Jeff was looking for.
He then sat me down next to him at his office and redid the scene for me. And BOY was it epic. I had a front row seat.
I don’t know anyone besides Jeff who would do scenes like this. I’m not sure anyone even notices that he does this kind of thing on occasion.
What am I taking about?
Animated camera moves.
Jeff took that scene and animated the camera move. What I mean to say is, that he took the artwork, characters, backgrounds and all, and animated them as if the camera was moving. Then at some point during the scene, the camera DOES move and you don’t even realize what happened.
Take a look at that scene again. The whole ROOM, along with the characters, spins around, Antics and then animates away, BEFORE the actual camera begins to move. It was a phenomenal bit of animating and directing.
I remember inbetweening some drawing from that scene and tightened up two bits of rough drawings. The rest was all Jeff.
I haven’t worked with a Simpsons director since, that was willing to hand animate a camera move to make a shot work.
Jeff did this in a few of his episodes. Now a days, we think it can only be done with computers.
My lesson from that experience? There are no boundaries in animation except for the ones you put up.
Get Fun E-mails
In this week’s e-mail, I went through the rest of this episode and gave my thoughts and small anecdotes on specific scene I worked on.
It was an experiment and it was fun because the readers got a sneak behind the scenes.
Don’t miss out. Opt in and join in the fun, next time.
GRAMPA: I say we call Matlock. He’ll find the culprit. It’s probably that evil Gavin MacLeod or George “Goober” Linsay.
BART: Grampa, Matlock’s not real.
GRAMPA: Neither are my teeth, but I can still eat corn on the cob, if someone cuts it off and smushes it into a fine paste. Now that’s good eatin”!
When I first started out on The Simpsons, I was a cocky 18 year old with a big ego and crumby drawing skills.
A bad combination.
It didn’t help that I was just passable enough as a draftsman to get hired on the show. I strutted around as if I DESERVED to have gotten hired. If I could go back in time to talk to my old self, I’d smack myself upside the head.
The Second Simpsons Show I Worked On.
I literally owe my career to Director Jeff Lynch. To this day, I have no idea why put up with me.
If I had been a smarter kid, I’d of gotten his subtle hints that I really stunk and I should really not be so cocky. But, unfortunately for me, and everyone else, I wasn’t.
The second episode of The Simpsons I “officially” worked on was: LISA VERSUS MALIBU STACY directed by Jeff.
I worked on about five scenes in each Act. Mostly crowd scenes. Jeff would find scenes that I couldn’t possibly mess up or that would take me a long time to do and I’d do those scenes.
I remember drawing this scene. It’s one of my first memories working on the show.
The first scenes I worked on in this particular episode were, in fact, the opening scenes with the old people and Matlock.
These were given to me because:
It was full of crowds and
it was all secondary characters
The reason he assigned me scenes with secondary characters was because the family is so tricky to get right, that it’s much more obvious when they’re off model. The secondary characters are a little more forgiving if you don’t get them just right.
It was prudent for him to give the stuck up rookie a scene full of secondary characters. This is the only time Matlock appears on the show. No one can tell how badly off model I drew him since no one had even seen what he was SUPPOSE to look like.
Exiled to The Little Dark Room
In order not to give me anymore work than he needed to, when I turned a scene in to Jeff, he would take one look at it and give it right back,
“Shoot it,”
“Oh, okay.”
This would send me to a little dark room, the size of a closet, where a video machine attached to a camera was set up. Here, I would sit in the dark, time out a scene, and then “shoot the scene”. In other words, put it on video, taking a picture of my drawings, one frame at a time. This was LONG before we had computers to do this in.
The Matlock scenes I remember spending the most time on were the one where you slowly see him coming up the steps with both canes, and the close up choking scene.
Choking Matlock
The choking scene in particular took me hours (or was it days?) to shoot.
I’d done the scene and turned it in, but Jeff had asked me to shoot it. So I did, and I showed it to him. It was stiff as a board and looked awful. So he sat down in that dark room and reworked the drawings. He sketched out new, better, but very rough drawings.
They had a LOT more energy and power than the ones I had made.
He then wrote some rough timing on the corner of the pages and asked me to expose the drawings accordingly. So I did.
I showed him the scene again, but it wasn’t quite right. It was MUCH better but not quite right. He added a few more drawings, took some out and changed the timing again.
I shot the scene again. I showed it to him and he adjusted the timing a little bit again. So I shot it again.
This happened for a while. I spent my day shooting the scene.
When he finally got what he wanted, I asked him if he wanted me to clean up his roughs,
“No, just touch them up a little bit. Erase some of the darker lines and rougher bits but keep most to the drawings as they are.”
“Okay.”
So I did as I was asked. I believe that I still have one of the rough drawings that he took out of that scene. One of my many Jeff Lynch mementos.
The Lesson
I was a complete moron and a lousy artist and animator, BUT those days, doing what Jeff had asked me to do and working under Jeff that way, where the BEST learning moments of my career.
My current understanding of timing and animation, EVERYTHING that I know now, has it’s foundation in those hour and hour of being in that dark little room. It was my own little cave of knowledge where the wise man taught the foolish young man what to do.
Yet I was so foolish, I was hardly aware it was happening.
Thanks Jeff. Lessons learned.
Get e-mails
In this week’s e-mail, I got a bit candid about my emotional reaction to watching LISA VS. MALIBU STACY, for the first time in YEARS.
If you missed out on this e-mail. Opt in below to join the fun.
BOOKS – Free copy of The Tower’s Alchemist Kindle book
Just a quick plug/update on my wife Alesha’s book.
I’ve been pimping this book ALL week.
If you haven’t heard, for this week and this week only, THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST is FREE to download for the Kindle.
That means, if want to get yourself a FREE copy, you’ve got today and tomorrow to get it. Otherwise, you’ll need to*GASP!* buy it.
But seriously, most everyone reading this post will have missed this deal. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still pick up the book even though it’s now $2.99 (which is less then a Starbucks coffee and even a COMIC BOOK!).
If you don’t own a Kindle device, that’s okay. Turns out, you don’t need one. Amazon is in the business of selling books not Kindles.
As I’ve been telling people all week, if you have an iOS device, download the Kindle app for FREE. Also available for Android, Windows 7 phones and blackberry phones, FREE. Or you can download the Kindle program on your Mac or PC, FREE or you can read the book on Kindle Cloud, for FREE.
CLICK HERE for info about this from directly from Amazon.
In case you’re wondering, here’s what the book is about:
Wizard Vs. Nazi Warlock Vampires.
It’s a very different World War II.
The Nazis have unleashed occult forces throughout Europe and the Allies are forced to recruit and employ wizards to counter their attacks.
Among them is the battle weary spy, Isabella George, a Gray Tower dropout trained in Alchemy. Longing for retirement and a life of peace, she accepts one final job–extract a deadly warlock from Nazi occupied France and prevent him from unleashing an alchemical weapon that will devour the continent.
But France is crawling with the Cruenti, vampiric warlocks who feed off other wizards. When things don’t go according to plan, one Cruenti sets his deadly eyes on her.
Betrayal is everywhere. Even some of her closest allies cannot be fully trusted. Worse still, she finds, she can’t even trust herself. She becomes a woman torn between her charismatic spy lover who offers her what she desires most, and one of her closest confidants, whose soft seductive eyes hold deadly secrets about her past, and the Gray Tower itself.
Plans within plans. Plots versus counter plots. Heists gone wrong, sword-wielding Catholic priests, and the greatest manipulation of history that has ever been seen, is just a taste of what Isabella George is in for, in her final mission.
If this sounds cool to you, click the link below and pick up a copy. Also available in hard copy:
Thursday night I came home and only three of my four kids greeted me at the door. I asked where my 4 year old son Dante was and my wife informed me he was in bed. Seems he had been misbehaving and was put to bed early.
I went to see him and discovered he was still awake. I went over and kissed him good night. As I was leaving he stopped me,
“Daddy, my arm hurts right here,” and pointed as his arm. This is typical. He’s always complaining about something so I went over caressed his arm quickly and said,
“There, now go to sleep,” and walked out of the room. I didn’t think anything of it.
The next day at work, Alesha calls me from the doctor’s office. Baby Luke had an appointment that day.
“Dante has a fractured arm.”
“What?!”
“He was complaining about pain in his arm…”
“Yeah, I know, he did that last night.”
“Oh, he did? Well, he seemed really hurt because when he moved his arm around he would cry, so I told him we’d have the doctor take a look at it while we were there. The doctor checked him out and took x-rays. His arm is fractured.”
“HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?”
“I have NO idea. He told me he fell.”
“Maybe he through a big tantrum when you sent him to his room and hurt himself.”
“We’ll, he and Elizabeth were playing pretty rough yesterday, pulling each other’s arms. I told them to stop.”
“Yeah, I don’t know…I think he through a tantrum. You know how he is.”
Well, anyway we STILL don’t know how it happened but he had his arm in a sling for a few days before he got his cast.
He was sooo happy to walk around with that sling on his arm.
And now that he has a cast, it’s like he’s proud of it or something.
THE SIMPSON NEWS – Why I Chopped Quentin Tarantino’s head off.
Simpsons Quote:
“This is indeed a disturbing universe.” – Maggie Simpson
I’m not a Quentin Tarantino fan nor am I a fan of his movies.
I’ve never met Mr. Tarantino. It’s possible that if I did, I might like him and think he’s a great guy. But from interviews, documentaries, and other things like that, where I’ve heard him speak, he’s rubbed me the wrong way.
How it began
A long time ago, back when I was working on Season 8 as a Layout Artist, sometime in 1996, I was put on Show 3, Directed by Chuck Sheetz.
I was given the storyboard for the show and took a look at what we were going to be tackling. It was the Sherry Bobbins show and I thought it was very funny. Then I saw the Itchy and Scratchy section of the show. I thought it was awesome and decided I wanted to do it.
Some Directors ask the Layout artists what scenes they want to work on, while others simply assign them a section they think fits their strengths. My preferred method of getting layout scenes was simply to get them assigned to me. This time, I made an exception.
I walked into Chucks office and I asked for the Itchy and Scratchy scenes. I didn’t know if he had another assignment in mind for me. I just wanted to do those scenes. I explained to him how I REALLY wanted to draw Itchy chopping Tarantino’s head off because he annoyed me.
He told me it was fine and also assigned me some other scenes, since the Itchy and Scratchy section was so short. This was the first and last time I ever asked a director for a specific section like this.
The fun part
I returned to my desk triumphant. This was going to be fun. I was going to go to town on these scenes.
One of the best parts about working on the scene was just making fun of how much Tarantino uses his hand when he talks. I think I had recently seen him interviewed in some talk show and it was fresh in my mind.
I over acted the heck out of the poses during his lines. So much so, that I didn’t think there would be time to put all my poses in the short amount of dialogue he had. I just wanted him to look as erratic as possible.
It turned out looking alright in the end.
The Irony
I don’t ACTUALLY want to harm Tarantino, I thought perhaps it would be cathartic to do it in cartoon form, knowing I wasn’t actually doing anyone any harm.
On hindsight, I think the REAL reason I wanted to chop of his cartoon head off was because of that ear chopping scene in RESERVOIR DOGS. When I saw that movie and that scene came up, it made me feel sick to my stomach. I was like,
“What WRONG with this director?! He’s sick in the head!”
I guess this spoof was my attempt to “get even” for making me feel so sick.
Well, the joke was on me.
After all, the scenes I was working on where spoofs of that very scene. When it was time for me to actually work on the scenes, a horrible realization came over me. It never occurred to me that in order to do the spoof justice, I had to…well…do research. I had to see how it was done in the actual movie.
In other words, in order for me to do this spoof, I had to look at the ear chopping scene in RESERVOIR DOGS, over and over and over. Analyzing it, freeze framing it, playing it over, ACTING IT OUT. I had to LIVE that scene in order to get the movement right.
“Why did I chose to do this?! Aaah!”
It came back to bite me in the butt.
I also had to do the same with the Pulp Fiction Dancing scenes. But that wasn’t nearly as bad. And it was much more fun to breakdown the dancing in those scenes, so I could pose out my drawings.
It didn’t take away the bad taste in my mouth I ended up with having to see the RESERVOIR DOGS scene so much.
The Catharsis
Well, perhaps it fueled me more when I finally got to the head chopping part. I made sure to make it as silly and cartoony as I could. I made the head bounce like a rubber ball when it hit the ground and added the tongue sticking out. I also added a small swagger to the decapitated body as it took a step back before he fell forward, butt in the air. Too bad this last bit wasn’t quite timed the way I had seen it in my head.
I drew the scenes really fast. Faster than I’d ever drawn any scenes before. There were just so many poses. By the time I was done, the scenes were huge. Some of the biggest ones I’d ever done.
It turned out the be one of the best looking scenes I’d ever drawn too. So much so, that I photocopied the scenes and I still have those copies at home. It’s one of maybe, three scenes that I ever did that with.
So yeah, it was fun and satisfying for me to do that scene in the end. But I think Tarantino got the last laugh, considering I had to look at that ear chopping scene so many times to do it.
When I was working on this episode, I didn’t really have a convenient way of looking at the reference I need.
This week in my e-mail, I write about the archaic method I used to reference the movie.
It was pretty sad and pathetic. If you missed out on that info and don’t want to miss out again, sign up to receive the e-mails from me. Sign up in the side bar or in the opt in at the bottom of this post.
WEBSITES – The Drawing Website Update
Here’s a short update of where I’m at, with the launch of The Drawing Website.
I’ve created a Twitter handle for the site.
It’s: @DrawingWebsite.
It doesn’t have an avatar yet. It’s on my list to do. I just need to get the site up and running before I tackle smaller things like that. You can follow the site if you want. I’ll see about throwing update on there.
I’m also trying to finish up the two site mascots for the main page. Here are my roughs:
And yes, they’re holding pencils.
Did I mention I’m treating the drawing site like a Kung Fu class? Well, now you know. Learn to draw like you would learn Kung Fu. You’ll have fun. I’m having fun already and I haven’t even launched the darn thing.
Get an e-mail about the site’s launch by signing up in the opt in.
SOME THOUGHTS – My new current obsession
Four years ago I wrote a post about my obsessive personality. Included in that post was the following diagram:
Well guess what? You can officially add some new unexpected obsessions to this list:
36. Business
37. Entrepreneurship
38. Marketing
39. Copy writing.
That’s right, I’ve become obsessed with this stuff lately. I’ve just been reading about it and thinking about it and I’ve even started putting it into practice. It’s very possible that I’ll be writing far more about it in this blog, since that’s where my heads at right now.
Similar to the way I was writing about board games and role-playing games.
I hope that, when I do, IF I do, I can show you why I’m so obsessed with it and why I find it as creative as drawing and writing stories.
Oh, and by the way, “Drawing” should have been on the list above, but for some reason I left it out. Just imagine that number 10 reads: “Painting/Drawing”.
I was assigned Act 1 of episode 2 of this new season and man does it have a lot of rewrites. LOTS of work for me this week.
I was mostly finished with roughing out the fixes when the director came into my office and asked me to start on Act 3 once I was done roughing out Act 1.
So Wednesday I started Act 3. Needless to say, I won’t have the final finished version of Act 1 done by the end of the week.
At least Act 3 wasn’t as heavily rewritten. That’s gonna help out a lot.
MOVIES
Now here’s a movie that’s gonna make a TON a money. I really should buy Disney Stocks:
ART
ALRIGHT! I’m really cranking out these pages considering I’m working on them like, twice a week. It’s cool, since most of the planning is done. There were are a few spots where I left the final decisions of what I was gonna do to this part of the process. Specifically pages 30, 32 and 33. More on that below, underneath page 30:
At this point in the story, I knew I wanted to make what the characters where talking about visual. So thought a cut away would be good, I just didn’t really know exactly what the cut away would be. I decided, since my character is Conan-ish, that the cut away should look like a Frank Frazzetta painting. I google some paintings and basically did parodies of the them.
Here, I was just trying to show a little bit of the day in the life of the character, so you can see that he used to have jobs but the sorcerers always ruined them for him. He doesn’t say it in the dialogue so I decided to add the information visually.
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We had the day off Monday because it was Memorial day. This left me with four days to do the work I have to do this week. I enjoyed having a day off, I just don’t like how I seem to get punished for having it.
I did manage to finish Act 3 on Tuesday which gives me the rest of the week to finish Act 1.
The reasons I haven’t gotten done with Act 1 was because it had a really problematic opening that the director really wanted to work out himself. It was really tough but he solved it. Now I just have to make it presentable for the layout staff.
VIDEO
An excellent video on drawing eyes:
ART
This is the fun part of storyboarding for me. This is the part I enjoy the most. The first pass at building the visual pace and narrative of a film or show. After all this time, (two years) I finally get to see what my story will look like. Once I’m done with this pass, I’m going to time it and make a rough animatic. But first, I need to get the shots down as fast as I can. All that work thumbnailing is finally paying off. I don’t really have to think as hard as I did as when I thumbnailed the shots. I just have to make rough clear drawings that tell the story. If it works at this stage, it will work once it’s cleaned up. I’m not laboring over anything too much at this stage. It just has to be clear.
Once I finished this pass and get ready to time it out as an animatic, I’m probably going to need more acting poses to flesh out the action.
The first panel above is in yellow because I just imported my original Post-it and stuck it in the panel to save me time. I’ll replace the first panel during the rough animatic process, I just wanted to have something there in the mean time. I didn’t want to re-rough the drawing.
I’m drawing the rough pass in red because, well, if feels more comfortable for me to do so. The red line makes it feel less final to me. It’s just a working habit I’ve acquired.
The drawing of the raven above and below is really clean only because I used an old development drawing I had done during the treatment process. It was pretty much the shot I had thumbnailed so just went ahead an used it.
The page count gets screwy here because I had to “re-print” the last two pages. I had forgotten to put in the dialogue and descriptions in the last four pages:
29 scenes down, 400 left to go.
What do you think?
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Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
446 In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses,59 is rendered as Kyrios, “Lord”. From then on, “Lord” becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel’s God. the New Testament uses this full sense of the title “Lord” both for the Father and – what is new – for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself.60
447 Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a veiled way when he disputes with the Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110, but also in an explicit way when he addresses his apostles.61 Throughout his public life, he demonstrated his divine sovereignty by works of power over nature, illnesses, demons, death and sin.
448 Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as “Lord”. This title testifies to the respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing.62 At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, “Lord” expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus.63 In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title becomes adoration: “My Lord and my God!” It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: “It is the Lord!”64
449 By attributing to Jesus the divine title “Lord”, the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honour and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus, because “he was in the form of God”,65 and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory.66
450 From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ’s lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not “the Lord”.67 “The Church. . . believes that the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in its Lord and Master.”68
451 Christian prayer is characterized by the title “Lord”, whether in the invitation to prayer (“The Lord be with you”), its conclusion (“through Christ our Lord”) or the exclamation full of trust and hope: Maranatha (“Our Lord, come!”) or Maranatha (“Come, Lord!”) – “Amen Come Lord Jesus!”69
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
Luise,
That is a great illustration of the Podcast Expo. Sorry you did not make it to the Mass.
God bless,
Fr. Jay
Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
Sure, absolutely, go right ahead. Thanks for asking.
Hi Luise,
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
Hope to hear from you,
Den
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
So go right ahead Gina. Have fun.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
Hope that answers your question.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
Arianism was a Heresy that the Catholic Church fought against that deputed this belief around the years AD 250-336 which concluded in the Council of Nicea. For more info go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm .
Hope that answers your question.
thank you. most people would out-right refuse to answer that question nowadays.
May the Lord bless you, Luis!
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
HA ha! Yeah, you have a great name too.
Wow! That’s a lot of Luisesesss in your family. Pretty cool. Love your site dude. I’ll link to you.
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Cool. Anytime.
i like simpsons, starting watch becouse my doughter like it
I write comment but strange dropdown
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
Lol been stalking you. You’re pretty good. Not bad for a dad of many. Very talented. Don’t know how you keep up. Chat soon on twitter
An overwhelming desire to keep sane helps.
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
Yes, absolutely. I’d be happy to.
Great, thank you! Could you email me a contact for you, at the above email link, and I’ll send you more information (and I’m ordering your book now!).