Fangbone 4?

I keep getting e-mails asking if I am working on Fangbone! #4.  Sadly, I'm not.  But I have been working on a pilot for Disney Xd Cananda.  Check out this video!

If you want to got, go here!  Choose the voice of Fangbone!

Puss in Boots

I did a quick program cover for the Chatham Community Player's production of "Puss in Boots."  My biggest concern was that it didn't look like the Dreamworks version.  The sketches were done at the dinner table while my boys were doing their homework.  I think I spent more time on the text than on the cat himself.

I need a volunteer...

One of the things I do during my school visits is have a child from the audience pose for me. I ask the student to act as if he or she is fighting a battle, and then I give them props and costume.  This is probably the most fun part of my visit.  I then use the child as a model while the audience watches me draw.  When doing this, I stress the idea of looking at something while drawing it, and that even a professional such as myself might make a mistake.

Also during my visit I talk about the writing process, and how I don’t just write my stories once, but I write them “again, and again, and again…” to make sure that they are as good as they can be.  And when I’m done with all of that writing, I feel like the guy on the screen in the last photo.

Thanks to Arielle Goldstein for the great photos.  You can read Arielle's blog here TechnicallyLibrarian

Fangbone! Pumpkin

I just got this excellent shot of a Fangbone! pumpkin from Tom Angleberger.  Yes, the same Tom Angleberger that is responsible for the very funny and hugely popular "Origami Yoda" series of books.  It seems that he's a pretty big fan of Fangbone!  Check out how the horns are made of pumpkin as well.  Look closely, and you can see there's a little carved skull on the top.

I've never net Tom, but we have chatted through e-mail a handful of times.  One of these days I hope to run into him in person. Thanks for taking the time to make this, Tom, and for sending along the picture.

Cowboy Ducks

I've been really busy the last few weeks.  I am just about done with Icky Ricky #3, the Fangbone! pilot continues to roll along and now we are developing two more scripts.  I took a little time over the weekend to do these Duck Cowboys for our local elementary school's art auction.  These were drawn with a fine pen bought at Staples, and rendered with Dr. Ph. Martin's concentrated water colors.

Fangbone! TV Pilot Art

Wow!  I have a great big pile of Fangbone! TV pilot art to share with you today.  I've been sitting on this all summer, but was recently given the go-ahead to post it.  All of the below work was drawn by the wonderful people at Mercury Filmworks.  None of it is mine.

This is what Fangbone's cave looks like now.

The kitchen in Bill's house.

 This is a battle dummy that Fangbone uses to develop his barbarian skills.

 Here are the two other Skullbania warriors that will be regulars on the show.

You can nevr have enough trolls.

 Here's a sketch of Drool's throne room.  This was used to determine scale.  That little red guy is Drool.

Action pose of Fangbone.  This was one of the first pieces that was produced to get a sense of what the who would look like.

Two types of sketches...

Over the last two weeks I have had very little time to do any "real" work.  Camp is over, but school has not started yet.  That means I have the boys at home all day.  We have a lot of fun, and I keep them busy. I get some work done at night after they are in bed, but sometimes I'm just too wiped out.   I have, however, had some time to sketch and just have fun with my drawings.

Below are two sets of sketches.  The first is observational drawings, and the second is creative work. However, all the sketches were done with the same materials and technique.  For these drawings, I put in the goldish/brown value first using watercolor, and then drew all of the lines.  I'm usually a slave to line, so this was a good opportunity for me to try to shake off some of my bad habits.

Urban Sketching in Brooklyn

On Saturday the 17th, I took the Ikea ferry over to Red Hook with the NYC Urban Sketchers group. We got off at the Fairway supermarket and hung around that area for a while.  Outside of Fairway are a bunch of old, busted up trolleys.

This is the front of one of the trolleys with the Fairway umbrellas in front of it.  I added the colors, and cropped it when I got home.  Below is the original drawing scanned directly from my sketchbook.  I regret putting in the marker value on the original.

Here's another one of the trolley, this one is of the wrecked side doors.  This is all traditional media on paper.  No digital work here.

This is a quick one of one of the old windows and shutters in the Fairway building.

Lastly, I present, The Red Hook Yacht Club.  This is about a block away from Fairway, and is one of the most fun things that I have ever drawn.  It seems to be a social club for some of the senior members of the community, and they were all very friendly and very interested in our work.  They even gave us some bread to munch on while we drew.

This is exactly how it looks in the sketchbook. This was all done on location while sitting on the sidewalk.  I really like this one, and want to do something more with it, but I'm not sure what.  I could render it all in black and white hatching (like I have started), I could add digital color, or  I could drop in some watercolor.  I just don't know yet.  Who knows, maybe it's already done.

Fangbone's original name was...

I hand kind of forgotten about this, but “Fangbone” was originally named “Bonesword.” When I pitched the “third grade barbarian” idea to my editor, he really liked it, but said that the name didn’t work.  He was worried that it would read as “Bones Word” as opposed to “Bone Sword.”  He sent me off to come up with another name, and after putting together some words that I liked, “Fangbone” showed up. 

If I remember, I wanted his sword, which was made of bone, to play a part in the narrative, but that didn’t end up going anywhere.  Bill’s name was a no-brainer.  I just needed a simple, one-syllable boys’ name that was very common.

This was one of the very first drawings for this idea that I made, and I like the loose watercolor.  

More Fangbone! TV design sketches

The Fangbone! pilot is flying along.  Early in the summer the all of the voices were recorded, the storyboards are done, designs have been finalized, and right now I am patiently waiting for the first rough edit.

I still can’t show any of he work produced by the great folks at Mercury Filmworks, but I can post sketches that I have done.

While the designers use some of my sketches almost verbatim, others are used as jumping off points.  People have asked me if I have liked working with other artists, and how it feels to have my worked changed.  Personally, I think it’s great.  The people I am working with are insanely talented, and they really understand Fangbone!

In fact, the best part of this project has been the day I spent up at Mercury doodling and laughing with the lead designer.  It made me feel like I was drawing in my parent’s basement with my friends when I was a kid. It reminded me of why I got into drawing and telling stories for a living.

The actual animation is scheduled to start in September.

This is a detailed drawing of Fangbone's cave.

Some ideas for the tents that the barbarian clans would use.

A throne for Drool.  Known as the "Bone Throne."

This is a communication portal that Fangbone uses to talk to the wizard in Skullbania.  I can't show you him, but he's awesome.

This is how Drool watches Fangbone and Bill.  I can't show you what's it's filled with.

Some character work, and a prop.