Off The Wall

"Trade Creative Services Running up Stairs, 2007-09"
Pencil and paint marker on latex wall paint
Big (about 356 cm x 229 cm (140 in. x 90 in.))
Panoramic photo-compostie, 2009

This is the companion piece to the caricature group of illustrators drawn earlier this year on the walls of one of the Cartoon Network offices' emergency stair cases. This one was drawn one flight down from the previous, featuring staffers comprising the design and writing branches of Cartoon Network's Trade Creative Service (TCS). It does differ from the illustrators with the absence of interns and most temps, but other wise it depicts people who have been part of the group since they had relocated to the new building in 2007.

As a note, the two caricature groups still don't encompass the whole of TCS. Absent is the smaller group of creatives who work exclusively on adult swim projects. They're located across the street (across the 75 highway actually) in the Williams Street Building, thus falling outside the parameters of the mural.

I spent approximately eight lunch-hours spread over three weeks to complete the 19 figure ascension line, pretty much adding to the piece by sub-groups clearly defined by gaps in the line. For that fact alone, it's less unified than the illustrators, but perhaps it needs the gaps to breathe.

The process involved first sketching indiviual and groups of caricatures on paper. On the wall, caricature figures were lossely drawn in pencil (2H or HB), some times greatly revised from the initial sketch exploration. Over the pencil, figures were drawn front to back with a black, thick chisel tip paint marker. Color was added later (again paint markers) allowing at least a day for the black paint to dry. The limited color palette is perhaps more evident on this group with its greater number of figures. Most notably, I had no brown markers. Instead, brunettes were given black hair with color accents, red, orange or blue.

(bottom-left to top-right: Clayton Preston, Elizabeth Beasley (writer), Brandon Barr (writer), Clint Carruth (writer), Shari Margolin (designer), Rob Zides (designer), Matthew Crouch (designer), Owen Eliasen (designer), Jessie Green (premiums), Jessica Silberstein (premiums), Stephanie Gray Martin (premiums), Paul Byk, Tom Shutt (designer), Petrika Jannsen (designer), Ty Wong (designer), Jay Rogers (designer), Lori Chiappe, Lauri Clay, Gary Albright (V.P.))

Clayton ****-, Elizabeth ***--, Brandon *----, Clint ****-, Shari ***--, Rob **---, Matthew **---, Owen *****, Jessie ***--, Jessica **---, Stephanie ***--, Paul **---, Tom **---, Petrika ***--, Ty ****-, Jay *---, Lori ****-, Lauri **---, Gary ***--

My apologies to Brandon, whom I had drawn from memory. Apparently I most remembered short messy hair. I describe him as looking like the cousin to Michael Madsen (Reservior Dogs, 1992)

My apologies to Jay, whom ended up looking like a little hobo-clown. The addition of facial hair which was intended to be more a shadow, but ran away to be a full, poorly manicured beard.


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On the far left, not part of the caricatures, is a red devil character based upon a conscience character I drew in grade school.

The bowling ball (mostly cropped out at the top on the stair railing) and the accompanying pins were drawn by an anonymous artist, as was the trail of blue dashed lines which are part of a larger composition.