Sketchbook Dump: Subway & Starbucks

I finished off another sketchbook before I had time to scan in any of the drawings for a smaller update. Most of these drawings were done either at my local Starbucks or on the subway back and forth from Toronto. The monkeys however, were not on the subway or in the Starbucks, those were done in the zoo.
Lately, more so than before, I've been attempting to put more story into the sketches I do, as a result of a reminder from Kris. One of the funniest people I know and a super nice guy to boot. I've also been using the Signpen again a lot this summer after James told me about it two summers ago, it's almost like using a Sharpie, but with slightly more control. If you haven't seen James' work for some reason, head on over there right away, his stuff is fantastic and yet, somehow keeps getting better. His drawings have a great sense of story, design and shape/form - something I'm really striving to do myself.
In other news - Andrew Stanton has confirmed that he's writing the script for John Carter of Mars, an old sci-fi serial by Tarzan scribe Edgar Rice Burroughs. This could be awesome. Also, a few Dreamworks artists including David Pimentel, Ken Morrisey and Jenny Lerew are part of an anthology called Scrambled Ink published by Dark Horse, you can learn about it over at Jenny's blog.
AICN via The New York Licensing show has some sneak peeks at Dreamworks upcoming projects such as Monsters vs. Aliens and How to Train Your Dragon. The ultimate Wall-E Toy is now available.
Last but not least - the End Credits to Kung Fu Panda are available online on the website of the studio which animated them, Shine.

That's all for now, more later.
R.

Bye..

R.I.P. Sparky
May 18th, 2000-June 05, 2008

R.

Dog.

Here are some drawings I did of my dog Sparky (my brother and I were young when we came up with this oh-so-original name) around the house. When I get bored, I like following him around, the "problem" is that he then notices I'm following him around and wants me to play with him, which I inevitably end up doing.
No real news to report this time. More to come soon.
R.

Drawings!

So I'm trying to do a lot more on location sketching - these were all done either at a mall or the local Starbucks. There's always a great variety of people around, and I've gotten much more accustomed to doing sketches with locations (what a novel concept...) The first one I was attempting to nail down the pose and character with as few lines as possible (my dog is in there too). Hope you like them, comments and critiques are appreciated.
In other news - one of my favourite artists has his own blog - Alessandro Barbucci, creator of Skydoll - which Marvel is actually reprinting in a translated version, seemingly different from the earlier Heavy Metal.
Jim Hull of the on and off blog "Seward Street" has a blog devoted entirely to story called "StoryFanatic", definitely worth checking out.
AnimationMentor has a couple of articles about ergonomics that should be read if you are working at a desk all day, regardless if you're an animator or whatever. They can be found here and here.
Last and most definitely not least, I wanted to once again congratulate Vlad Kooperman, animator extraordinaire, on his winning "best animation" in the Toronto International Film Festival 2008 Student Showcase. His film "C-Block" kicks ass.
Kung Fu Panda is awesome. Go see it when it comes out.
That's all for now, be posting again soon. Comments are greatly appreciated.
R.

Better late than never...

The drawings above were for the Sheridan 2008 Flipbook/yearbook.

So, I'm a little late with this post, but here goes.

School is over, industry day has come and gone. Four long yet short years in animation and one VERY short year in Art Fundamentals later, it's all over. Time really does fly when you're having fun. It's been a great ride, wish everyone the best. It's kind of impossible not to stay in touch these days with all of the social networking tools we have at our disposal, so I'll definitely be seeing a large portion of people online. To the class of 2008, great job and all the best. Also, awesome job to Group D!
I'm still in the process of looking for work and will post up my film as soon as I figure out which festivals (if any) require you to not post your film on the internet. If anyone has any information about this, feel free to leave me a comment or e-mail me.

Now, some articles of interest...
The McKinsey Quarterly has an article/interview with Brad Bird entitled "Innovation lessons from Pixar" which is worth a read; this article in Fortune talks about how Apple design guru Johnny Ive influenced the design of EVE in Pixar's next film Wall-E. Also, if you (all 5 of you reading this blog) have a chance, make sure to get your hands on The Office (the American version) one way or another, it is brilliant. Last, but not least, one of my favourite bands, "Gorillaz" are coming out with a documentary, filmed over a few years called "Bananaz" about the creation and making of the first successful virtual band.
This, I'm pretty sure I've posted before, but for those who forgot about it or whatever, is the keynote address by Dr. Ed Catmull at Stanford University last year - if anyone is thinking of starting up a studio or running a business of any kind, you should listen to this. Unfortunately, it's in a format that few people use (realplayer) but you can download Media Player Classic which will play it without you having to deal with the actual RealPlayer.

That's all for now, been drawing a lot, so I'll be posting up some sketches and hopefully a portfolio later on this week.

R.

DONE!

So, 8 months of solid, hard work accumulated into 2 minutes worth of screen time, but the film is DONE. Now, working on portfolios and hoping I land a job on (or shortly before or after) the approaching industry day. I'll post more soon, but here are some screenshots.

Class of '08

Taking the idea from the graduating class of 2005, I thought it would be neat to have a poster, sort of a "class picture" of our entire year's characters. This is a poster that Alan Cook and I put together the other day. Alan's been good enough to update it as more characters come in. He's also posted it up in convenient wallpaper sizes, for both regular anamorphic and widescreen. I can honestly say I'm extremely proud to be in a year with a ridiculous amount of amazing talent. Can't wait to see how great the talent is in the years proceeding us!

Progress on the film is going ahead. I can't say for sure at this point whether it's on schedule, as one day it's going great, the next day I'm slightly ahead of schedule and the day after that, I'm two days behind. Gotta love the film making process. I'll post up some stuff soon.

R.

Thumbnails!

As a result of a life that is comprised almost entirely by the short film, I've been neglecting this blog quite a bit. Here are some quick thumbnails for a scene in my film, some of which were done at my desk, and some of which were done during a lecture by the great Charlie Bonifacio.
Special thanks to Matt for helping scan these as I was line testing a scene, and the broken gentleman for linking me as well. If you can, check them both out, very inspiring and insightful stuff.

R.

Quick Sketches.

Just decided to post something to keep this blog alive. I was having lunch with a friend last week and was doing some thumbnails for a scene as well, and decided to do a quick cafe sketch or two while I was thumbnailing. So, here it is.
Will be back to normalcy eventually.
R.

Character Designs.

Holy crap it's an update!
I never knew what my friends last year meant when they said they were so busy working on the film that they didn't have time to update their blogs...until now. I've been pulling ridiculous hours, hopefully they'll pay off.
These are some character design model sheets (boring...) of the characters in my film. They were done for the first and second years who are helping me out (so, so thankful). The second years who are helping me out are (in no particular order) Boris Maras, Amanda Zima and Amir Avni; all super-talented individuals. I'll post up the first years as well, once I get their blog addresses. Anyway, here they are, hopefully it won't be a month til I update next. The clean-up drawings were a test of the style of cleanup I wanted, however, I've gone with a different and somewhat 'rougher' approach to attempt to retain the life of the rough drawings in clean-up as well.
Also, special thanks to Monsieur Ugo, for being a huge inspiration for the woman and giving me some concepts to work with.
Back soon.
R.

Random sketches

Just wanted to post something up as I hadn't for a while. The first is from the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, which happened in November. I'm a bit behind on the scanning front. The second and third drawings are done on the Via train just 2 weeks ago, I took a little trip to Montreal to visit some family and friends. On the way, on the subway, I saw a woman dressed in a ridiculous faux fur leopard print coat, and didn't have time to draw her while I was there, so I drew her once I got on the Via...I guess you could say it was a memory sketch. The third drawing is a random character I drew and the girl beside me, who's name was Kim, remarked that he looked like an evil toy shop owner. Hence the little caption.
Also, I just found out that today, my blog has been up and online and consistently updated for a whole two years. So thanks to everyone who's visited and commented on here in the past two years, you're all helping in my goal to become a better artist. Thank you.
R.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone! All the best in the new year.

R.

Old Guy

My friends and I went out in downtown Toronto last night. We were at a club and I saw this guy there that I drew today, he stood out like a sore thumb but was really enjoying himself. I busted out the ol' watercolors and tried to paint him...
More soon, the break is coming up so, updates! Huzzah!
R.

Haircut

I went for a haircut on Friday and while waiting, I found a piece of paper beside me and decided to scribble something down because I was bored. I ended up drawing someone else who was waiting. Sorry I haven't posted much, but soon, the reel is almost done.

-R.

Girl

Based on a girl I met this weekend, late night doodles after working on boards for hours on end. Just had to let loose and have a little bit of fun.

-R.