Crash City

Here's a goofy little film I made with my boys. Gavin will be five in May, and Declan turned six in October. We were trying out a new video camera, and getting used to iMovie. As someone who went to film school, and actually shot and edited celluloid, a program like iMovie just amazes me. And what really blows my mind is that it was edited while sitting on a couch!

This video was shot in "Lego-Motion."

Dude Sketches!

Lately, I’ve been really interested in trying to change the way I draw the characters for my books. It’s not so much about the media in which I finish them, but more about the actual style of the drawings. While I do like my drawings, I feel that they sometimes fall into an area that’s a little undefined; they’re not quite real enough, and not quite cartoony enough. Since I don’t really have the interest in drawing more realistically, I’m trying to push the cartoon side of the equation.



I’ve been looking at Amid Amidi’s excellent “Cartoon Modern” as inspiration. It’s a history of animation from the 40s, 50s, and 60s that documents the influences of modern art on the animation industry. I’ve always been attracted to images that are simple and graphic, but feel that during some crucial parts of my artistic development, I thought that being an artist meant that you should be able to make things look “real.” I’ve had a hard time shaking that.



The shapes and proportions on few of these guys are copied straight from the book, with changes only made to the faces and clothes. On occasion, making a copy of a drawing is fine for learning purposes. However, if I’m getting paid for a piece of art, it’s a no-no.



I’m posting a few pages from my sketchbook showing my attempts at drawing simple, more graphic characters. The pages are unedited, because I think it’s important to see the work developing on the page. I could just show the good ones, and pretend the cruddy ones don’t exist, but that’s no fun.

International Primate Protection League, Pt. 2

Back in December, I published the following post

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The International Primate Protection League is a “grassroots wildlife protection organization” that promotes “the conservation and protection of all nonhuman primates, great and small, around the world.” In other words, they’re good people.
Please, take a few moments to stop by their site and find out more about the IPPL and the great work that they do.

Their September 2010 issue of "IPPL News" features an entire page dedicated to “Furious George Goes Bananas!” There’s even a contest for children to draw George, and they can win a book signed by me! When it's announced, I'll make sure to post the winning entry.



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A few days ago I received the December 2010 issue with the results. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Here's a piece that I drew a while ago and I really liked. The story, "The Teeny-Tiny Firefighter" never really came together, but I liked this image. I recently read that a film is being made about a Leprechaun fireman, and it made me think of my wee firefighter.

I wish I could tie the image into something meaningful about the New Year, and say that it's some sort of clever metaphor, but I can't, and it's not. Maybe that's my New Year's Resolution..."Stop looking for meaning and just enjoy!"

Here's to a great year!---Mike

PETA U.K. Furious George Contest

The great people over at PETA U.K. are giving away two signed copies of "Furious George Goes Bananas" to anyone who can "take an existing book title and rename it with an animal twist." Go check it out.

PETA UK---Furious George Contest

I've also talked with the PETA U.S. people and they will hopefully be doing something similar soon. It's a good time of year to give to groups like this. Some people might enjoy having a donation made in their name, rather than getting another DVD or hoodie for the holidays.

Zombie Cat!

Dudes!

Here's two dudes. A rocker dude, and a pirate dude. I like these dudes. I just may make my next book all about dudes.

Astronaut #10

Here's a colored pencil drawing that I couldn't call anything other than "Bird Rogers."

International Primate Protection League

The International Primate Protection League is a “grassroots wildlife protection organization” that promotes “the conservation and protection of all nonhuman primates, great and small, around the world.” In other words, they’re good people.
Please, take a few moments to stop by their site and find out more about the IPPL and the great work that they do.

Their September 2010 issue of "IPPL News" features an entire page dedicated to “Furious George Goes Bananas!” There’s even a contest for children to draw George, and they can win a book signed by me! When it's announced, I'll make sure to post the winning entry.

Markers and Colored Pencils

For the first time in six years, I no longer have Grad school two nights a week, and I have been having a good time just drawing. I'm trying new materials and new approaches. Here's a few faces done with marker and colored pencils. I consider these sketches, because they are not really "done."

While these don't really fall into my watercolor attempts, they provide the same, non-digital, process, and satisfy my need to have a physical piece of artwork that I can show off without looking at a computer screen.

More Digital Work...

This is a "sketch" that I made for some friends for an App. that they are creating. 100% digital. This is one of the first non-children's pieces I've done in a while.

Goon Sketches #6

Early on, I knew that Frankenstien's monster would appear in "Goodnight Goon." I did mess around with the idea of using watercolors for this book, but I didn't, and still don't, feel that I'm a very good painter. Above is the the watercolor test and the same image drawn with pen and ink, and rendered with pencil. One looks amatuer, and one looks professional. Easy decision on my part.

Park Luncheonette

Here’s one last (I promise) pass at a black and white drawing colored using watercolor samples. The “Park Luncheonette” is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on the corner of Union and Driggs, if I remember it right. I lived on the south side McCarren Park from 1988 to 1999, and we used to eat hot dogs there in the summer. This drawing is very old. According to my sketchbook, I drew this in the summer of 1990. I like the color in this one, but the lack of a character makes it a bit flat.
It's also a bit too grubby looking for picture book art.

In the Martin Scorcese film, “The Departed,” there's a long scene where Leonardo DiCaprio beats the spit out of a bunch of guys and hurls them through some glass cases. That was shot at the luncheonette.

He Has a Fish In His Pocket!

One more digital/hand drawn piece before I knuckle down and get to rewrites and fixes on my graphic novel. Man, I like this one.

Digital Dionsaur

I liked that little sketchbook piece so much that I dedcided to try the same technique with a more traditional picture book style drawing. I'm very happy with this...As with all of my images, you can click it to get a closer look.