120 [m ] - Adventure Two Timer

With the no-surprise success of the first season DVD compilation, Cartoon Network had the no-surprise eagerness to follow it with the second season DVD compilation, also to be available on Blu-ray disc.

With this and the Ben 10 Ultimate Alien DVD’s I became involved with DVD packaging and menu production to a deeper level than the illustrations I had contributed with most previous projects be it DVDs, posters and all sorts of marketing and advertising materials.

By golly, DVDs can require a load of bits and pieces all needing design work:
1) the cover art;
2) maybe a slipcase;
3) maybe a two-sided printed insert;
4) the disc(s);
5) maybe a sticker calling out features;
6) and every menu screen.

Then you repeat all of that for the Blu-ray version which has a smaller case, but bigger, higher resolution menus. I had kind of forgotten that since my days in art school. You know, where an assignment might be to conceive and design all of that by yourself.

With the idea of using Jake (the dog) as all-over packaging used on a different DVD compilation, Candice opted to use the villainous Ice King for Season 2. The layers of reveals motif was applied again. Removal of the skip case reveals Simon, the Ice King’s shaven “normal” pre-Ice King appearance.

Then again like for “One” there is muscle structure King for the contents insert page, his skull for one disc, and brain for the other which has been encased in ice for that bit of distinctiveness.

I did the bulk of the illustration work necessary. I also up took additional responsibilities of intermediary between Candice and hired designer who did the so-called grunt work.

In this new operational structure, I constructed sample of the slipcase as a “proof of concept” to test its structural integrity. This was greeted with pleasure and unexpected surprise. Folks weren’t making proof-of-concept prototypes. As it had seemed to me, people were doing less of that kind of exploration and trying to jump projects from thumbnails to finished layouts. Maybe its lack of time. Maybe it’s “the process” and there are parts which can’t reliably be planned for its time and expense. Well, I like to have things planned, so that’s something I brought to these projects.

Adventure Time: The Complete Second Season

Art direction: Candice H.

All images found.

120 [m ] - One Upon an Adventure Time

I had worked on a number of Cartoon Network’s DVD packages up until I parted ways for other things. I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve worked on the arguably repetitious Ben 10 DVD package designs, extending from the original series through it’s Ultimate Alien installments. I also worked on the first three “Complete Season” compilations for Adventure Time.

With the first season, the conception owes to Candice ’s art direction. As a simplified telling of it’s evolution, as the first and expectedly popular (should sell a lot of ’em) DVD compilation, it was thought that it should be special. “Let’s give it a slip case.” “Let’s leverage lead character Finn’s iconic hat silhouette.” “Yeah! THAT’s the slip case! You remove that slip case to reveal... uh, hat-less Finn and his luscious, blond hair!” Then everything else with the printed insert and disc art played on deeper revelations.

As the illustrator, I came up with muscle-structure (skinless) Finn, and Finn’s skull and finally Finn’s brain.

I’d say that my most important creative contribution was to assuage fears of showing Finn’s blonde hair between the slip cover’s die-cut hat ears. It was a small discussion, to be sure, but seeing what’s Finn’s hair outside his hat make no logical sense. However, as an area of flat yellow, it takes on a different function as that of non-character field color.

Adventure Time: The Complete First Season
Art direction: Candice H.

All images found.

120 [m ] - Things You Macy*s Above New York Thanksgiving Morning

One of the truly big projects I had a hand in which I worked, during what turned out to be my last year at Cartoon Network as a Senior Character Art Manager, was designing the Finn and Jake balloon for the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day parade.

For the parade, Macy*s selects properties and characters with “staying power” to license for their floats and balloons. Macy*s has a division devoted to the design and construction and care of the floats and balloons.

For show, “Adventure Time with Finn and Jake,” the balloon could have been Finn (the human boy), or Jake (the dog) or some how be both characters. The Macy*s folks had ideas, and we at Cartoon (Jake, Candice and me) had ideas. With the concept of Finn riding on the back of Jake selected, I then  iterated multiple versions of what that combination might be. Thankfully, Jake is a shape and size changer, so we stretched his typically stout body making him large enough to carry Finn. I drew the balloon in a couple of key views from which the sculptor could work.

Macy*s’ sculptor created a clay maquette about 24-inches long. On may sole work trip to the Macy*s shop, I gave my typical creative notes, “Make this bigger, move that there, etc.” and since the maquette was as big as it was, I got hands on and reworked parts of it while the sculptor worked on another part. Above is an image I found on the internet of the final painted version. Sharp-eyed folks might have caught sight of a snail that caught a ride with in Finn’s back pack.

The final one-of-a-kind balloon is comprised of many panels, whose measurements and positions are translated from the approved maquette. The process is slightly more complex version of the dress maker’s art. In the above image, also found on the internet, you may suss out what an art from it is to start with something that’s 24-inches long and recreate it as an inflated fabric shell nearly half the length of a American football field.

Boots n Cats

Last year I did this this character illustration that was used for the cover for Kristen Cook’s EP, “Play it Forward.”

The EP, released March 21 of this year, is comprised of 5 original songs that will inspire children to be the best versions of themselves.

“Play it Forward” is available on iTunes.

To learn more about Kristen Cook’s live shows, music and more go to: www.KristenCook.com.

Recycle

Hello.

In an unceremonious manner, I state that I’ve returned to the blog. I don’t have a back log of postage (?) for you, because I’m still in the unpacking stages of my move back to California. This move, by the way, began about a year and a half ago in October 2013, when I was accepted to fill a character artist position in Disney Consumer Products, Glendale, California, precipitating my departure from Cartoon Network, Atlanta, Georgia.

In this interim, I’ve just hadn’t had access to the drawing tools I had been accustomed.

While I get back into the habit, in the next few weeks I will mostly be sharing selections of sketches.

Stay tuned.

Happy Year of the Ram

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015

Was Chinese New Year

and now we’re in the Year of the Ram

(or sheep).

I’ve been having some technical difficulties in the last months, which have not been fully resolved. As a result, monotone will not have many new postings for a while.

I hope to return to a semi-regular/ also most weekly posting schedule by the end of March.

Thanks for following.

Messy Clipsmas!

Happy new year, too!

I’ll be back in February 2015

with more newness right here 

at monotonae!

TAGS - Aug. 31 & Sept. 1, 1994

 08/31: Talking points 

 09/01: Gats out of the Bag 

August 31: I reckon that this set up and punch line must have been used in The Wonder Years, The Brady Bunch or some such family situation comedy. Oh well.

Not that it matters to what’s happening in the strip, I’ll talk through the visual details.

1) “Happiland” is, of course a stand-in for Disneyland and the themed amusement park in which the TAGS characters work. This I’ve mentioned as necessarily informative, but this is the first time I’ve shown the park’s logo here on a monument marquee*. In fact, I hadn’t a logo designed until knowing that these two characters would be sitting outside the Park and the layout seemed to necessitate a sign of some kind.

2) A monument sign for Happiland, even as a location specific, non-marquee one, doesn’t/ didn’t stand-in for any real-life feature. I just seemed appropriate - cozier, if that makes sense. It’s kind of like the one at the Walt Disney Studios at the Buena Vista Street entrance (Google it if you must). Saying that, however, is misleading, because I’m sure I didn’t have that in mind.

3) The building in front of which Monster and Rodney are seated, IS a stand-in for Harbor House, the Cast-Member (employee) entrance off of Harbor Blvd. At the time, Disneyland had mechanical time clocks, and each employee had paper time cards. Upon arriving and departing work, each Cast-Member had to get their cards time stamped in Harbor House. As a physical location that was the sole entry and exit point for a majority of Cast-Members, Harbor House was THE location of convenience to meet other Cast-Members, especially when cel-phones weren’t common. Now the process is digital with magnetic stripped I.D. cards.

4) In the right most section of the building sits a security officer.

5) The silhouette to the left of the marquee, would be a topiary of the Park’s raccoon mascot. Like the monument sign, the topiary more has a counterpart at the Disney Studios than the Park.



September 1: This is absolutely all soap opera stuff. With TAGS lacking the promise of, or I not having the commitment to making it become a long running series, teasing out Monster’s crush seemed a poor plan and instead I thought it ought to be resolved in some way. 

[cliff-hanger! Dunt-dun-dunn!]


*A little history: In 1994, the second marquee of blue and pink with white letters had stood already for five years off of Harbor Blvd. in Anaheim at about featuring an electric message board. Five years later, b.t.w., that one went away with the construction of Disney California Adventure. The first marquee for Disneyland had large individually boxed letters and stood along Harbor Blvd. through a few color palettes beginning in 1958.

Rodney, African Lion, makes his 6th and 7th appearances in these 2 strips.

Walt

red pencil on paper

sketchbook #18

Dec. 5, 2014

Random convention sketches

 Thor

Black ink on comic book back board (2010)

Colored with color pencil (2014)

I drew this at a local comic shop and as inked art with basic red and blue coloring blocking was part of my collection of art-for-sale for several years. This year I finished it with color pencils.

 Duo Damsel

Black ink on comic book back board (2010)

Colored with color pencil (2014)

This came about from a miscommunication in a commission. The client collects sketches of Legion of Super-Heroes members. Unfortunately, he wanted her using her powers - in other words her wanted 2 or 3 of her. Like Thor above, the unfinished piece remained part of my art-for-sale collection for a few years.

 Belle/ Marvel Girl mash-up

Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board collector card

concept leading to a series of Disney princess/ Marvel heroine mash-ups

2014

In this experiment, I put Belle (Beauty and the Beast) in a classic X-Men/ Marvel Girl costume and colored it in the palette of Belle’s ballroom gown. On a 3-1/2-inch tall card there’s a limit to that amount of detail to be added. In what became a series, I opted for tighter cropped portraits that highlighted the princesses’ faces.

Jungle Girl

Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board

2014

This was not so much a commission rather than an enticement done during Heroes Convention knowing that one of my regular commission clients had a jungle girl collection.