Tom Shutt

Going Away Card, 2011.

Light blue pencil and black roller-ball ink on paper 

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Tom worked as a designer for the off-channel print group for at least seven years (calculated merely based upon the earliest caricature I have of him).

2005, birthday

In the style of Charles Schulz’s ”Peanuts” 

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Just as most all of the designers, he had worked on a good number of DVD packaging suites and posters. Beyond that, it seems that he applied himself to several environmental design projects including a few re-designs of the lobbies of the Network’s office floors and the Cartoon Network store at CNN Center, Atlanta.

2004, birthday

In the style of Hanna Barbera studios, circa 1960. 

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The one thing that that stands out in my recollections about how/where he’d applied his talents out side of work is a fashion show where everything was constructed out of paper.

[more Tom (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/07/off-wall.html]

Elizabeth Beasley

Going Away Card, 2011

Light blue pencil and black roller-ball ink on copier paper.
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Elizabeth worked as a writer for the network’s off-channel business for several years (five maybe?).  For example, if you’ve read the back packaging of one the DVD volumes of a “Ben 10” show, then you’ve probably read her work.

She was involved with the Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy group in Atlanta (http://www.myspace.com/gloc). She spread her interest in improvisation to help folks at work access their creative inner beings while avoiding blocking others’ creative beings - or tried at least.

[more Elizabeth (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/07/off-wall.html]

Face It

Cover, “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl” issue No. 2

carmine red pencil and 

black India Ink on Bristol Board

27.94  x  43.18 cm (11.00 in.  x  17.00 in.)

This is the inked cover to the next issue of “Unstoppable Tuff-Girl”

The girl in the foreground is a bit disproportionate, but the mast head and some snipes at the top conceal the most offending parts of the figure.

conceptual sketches

Unlike the dozens of thumbnail conceptual sketches made for the cover of issue No.1, I attacked this one by the sheer impulse of getting it done over the weekend.

The main “Tuff-Girl” section isn’t a repeat of the teaser advert. at the end of issue No.1, mostly because it didn’t need to be. It does, however, echo better the art drawn for the actual story. Namely, it includes the silhouette of Dr. Dockter.

Note my refusal to draw a complete wall of stadium seats, much less people in those seats.

Isis Booker

Logistics involving paper, writing instruments, local selections of people and my attention not otherwise engaged govern of whom I draw caricatures - in other words I mostly draw the people I work with and much less so people outside of that circle.

Isis worked licensing and was one of those folks who have the thankless task to guide the makers of things (licensees) to properly reproduce characters to the liking of the owners of those characters (licensors) and hopefully to the liking of the fans (consumers).

2008

red ink on paper

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What Isis likes, she LIKES. She likes Disney, and tries to visit one of the Magic Kingdoms every year. She likes anime and so learned to speak and read Japanese. She likes Dragon*Con and attends in different costumes each of the first three days of the fantasy/ sci-fi convention.

Matthew Crouch

Matt Crouch worked just a few weeks short of 13 years as an off-channel designer at Cartoon Network, Atlanta; as such he’s work there for all the time that I have. (Off-channel roughly is everything that’s not “on-air” and includes billboards, and all sorts of printed promotional items like tee-shirts, trade collateral and etc.)

Going Away Card, 2011

light blue pencils and black roller ball ink on paper

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Matt was one of the folks I knew who was fired two weeks ago. I drew the above faceless, faux-Hirschfield caricature above for his going away card.

2010, Speedy Recovery

carmine red pencil and black India Ink on paper

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Matt was interested in fitness. He would go biking - I’m saying on mountains and stuff? He also did that P90X extreme workout. In my caricatures of him, I would exaggerate broad shoulders and wide chest.

2005, birthday

digital composite with cleaned scan of India ink

based on the anime style of Inuyasha

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Matt likes comics, Star Wars and Japanese anime and manga and his cube was always an expression of that full action figures and statues. As a design art director, he was cast to work on action shows including the many Ben 10 series and Star Wars Clone Wars.


Matt, in his own words, also likes drinking, an aspect that anyone would find difficult to incorporate into marketing kids shows.

2004, birthday

digital color with cleaned scan of ink

vehicle based on the Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop

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When putting together my Merrill’s and my comic book feature for Tuff-Girl, I hired Matt to design a logo. When Merrill and I expanded the idea to the independent comic book, Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, I again asked him to design that logo. I want to see those logos on everything from tee-shirts, socks, tailgates and—movie posters.

[more Matt (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/07/off-wall.html]
[more Matt (2010): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2010/11/matts-back.html]

Gourd-geous

My Jack-o-lantern for this past Halloween. I played it safe by basically drawing the face, peeling away the “white ” parts. It’s teeth were pumpkin seeds.

Ed Murrieta

I wonder why someone isn’t telling the true stories that I want to hear. That’s actually a poorly assembled sentence with a consumerist’s point of view filled with conditional assumptions. Who is this rhetorical “someone” read as “someone else?” What are true stories, and what make them true? Are they actually not being told or have I just not heard them? And most insidiously, by what criteria would a story need meet that I would want to hear it?

But to the point, it’s this thought that bubbles to the surface of my consciousness when people leave. From that point forward all the things you shared with those people are categorically in the past, as if suddenly they were placed in a vault apart from the lobbies and living areas of your daily life. Am I the one who supposed to tell those stories? Ack, I should have been taking better notes.

Two weeks ago several people were fired from the Cartoon Network Atlanta offices. Ed Murrieta was one of those people.

Going Away Card, 2011

light blue pencil and black roller ball ink on paper.

in a minimalist Al Hirschfield-esque style.

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In this and three other caricatures I again attempted to mimic Al Hirschfield’s caricature style but without facial features. For me it was more about expedience and meeting a deadline and not a conscious political statement. I’ve known Ed for about 15 years. He hired me to be a character artist at Disney Consumer Products, and he was my boss for about three years. At the time, I once said that he was the best boss I had ever had. It was a cheeky thing to say since he was also the first art-director/boss I had.

2010, Birthday

acrylic paint on vinyl figure

[more: http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2010/09/ed-at-50.html]

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 In 2000, Ed was hired for an art-director of illustration for Cartoon Network’s off-channel business. I quickly asked him to whom at the then nine-year old network I should send my portfolio. Ed said that was going to be one of his responsibilities. Ed has been my art-director/boss for the last 10 years and Cartoon.
 

2005, Birthday

digital color over scan of ink on paper.

in the style of Johnny Hart’s B.C.

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Ed worked as an animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation in the mid to late 1980’s. He left that seeking more stable employment at Disney C.P. along with many of his animator friends. He returned to work on Atlantis, animating Audrey. There’s a caricature of Ed as an Atlantean in the film. It’s arguable if the “Big Boy” mascot for the diner in The Emperor’s New Groove is also a caricature of Ed.

2004, Birthday

digital color of scan of ink on paper.

In the style of Al Hirschfield.

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Ed told me that this drawing done for his birthday in 2004 was his favorite of my caricatures of him. He likes Hirschfield and he likes life drawing, so I felt that in drawing it I was on the right track. You can’t see it in this terrible JPG, but I incorporated in the drawing his son’s name eight times.

2003, Birthday

black roller-ball ink on paper.

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Knowing Ed for so long, I think I’ve drawn more caricatures of him than anyone else to date. Mostly, they have been embarrassing birthday cards, few of which I’ve had the forethought to make copies.

[more Ed (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-know.html]

[moreEd (2009): http://monotonae.blogspot.com/2009/03/stepping-up-art.html]