Bald Melon

Christmas Elephant

2011-12-15T21:01:00.003-06:00

I tried and tried to think of a clever title for this one, and couldn't. Oh well, enjoy just the same.

But these little guys, I call 'Elfants'.

4x6 Acrylic & watercolor on chipboard.

Mr. Grinch

2011-12-14T10:30:00.003-06:00

Once again, I got carried away decorating my Netflix return envelope. I hope it brightens the day of the overworked clerk at the distribution center.

I did this one for a friend of ours who was oogling the Netflix envelope sitting on our DVD player.
I think Chuck Jones was a genius to alter the color of the Grinch when he adapted it for his TV special. He gave him a natural Christmas coloring that way.

Pachyderm Postcards

2011-12-12T07:56:00.004-06:00

This is a series of postcards I painted on chipboard (acrylic & watercolor & marker & colored pencil) for my nieces & nephews. Enjoy...

Care for a cappuccino?

On second thought...maybe not

I suppose I should have had him flying an 'Ele-copter!

Ukulelephant!

I'm not sure what exactly to call this one.

Coffee Break

2011-11-30T15:20:00.001-06:00

I don't drink coffee. I have tried, but I just don't care for the taste of it. Love the aroma, cringe at the flavor. So when I opened a box of biscotti and found a free sample of instant java, I decided to put it to good use. I mixed it up in less than a quarter cup of water so it would be more concentrated, and did the following pieces:

This was actually the last one that I did. I painted him without an underdrawing or photo reference. Just let my imagination take the brush where it wanted. I just mailed it to my sister.

This image of Gandalf was fun. He is more of the stature of a Hobbit. So he's a wizard/Hobbit....a Wobbit. Oh, and I also used a drop or two of Port to add some ruddiness to his face.

After I did the previous Gandalf, I tried another attempt in a slightly different style.

I like drawing gorillas. And I like drawing cowboys. There you go.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2011-11-22T12:07:00.001-06:00

I like Thanksgiving. I like the fact that it hasn't been commercialized. I like the fact that though it is religious in nature, it doesn't belong to a particular belief system. Everyone can celebrate. I like that it isn't a political holiday - although it was officially started as an U.S. holiday in Lincoln's presidency, it celebrates a time of piece between British expatriates and the indigenous people of Massachusetts. Yup. everyone can celebrate.

(And, yes, popcorn is historically a Thanksgiving food. It was the first recorded time that Europeans ever had it.)

I hope you have a special weekend.

Elephant Crap

2011-11-20T23:42:00.001-06:00

I recently ordered some paper made from pachyderm poop. I am not kidding. There are companies that take elephant dung and recycle it into paper and sell it. The proceeds go to elephant conservation.

It's not a great surface for artwork. Too porous for my taste. But I'm getting used to it. Mostly because I like the idea of sending art to friends and let them know that it before it passed through the postal system, it passed through a sphincter.

The tiger is for a friend that regular sends me Starbucks gift cards, knowing my penchant for Chai. Yup, I barter art for tea.

(Original images are about 4x6")

What is going on here?

2011-11-17T16:29:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I put an image on paper and wonder what's going on with the characters.

This image started out as just the lion with an odd expression. Then I figured he should be looking at something, so I followed his line of sight and realized it had to be something small. So I added the chameleon. But the lizard had to be doing something that the lion was reacting to, so I threw in a couple of props.

Maybe the chameleon is the lion's agent, I don't know.

At any rate, it looks like we caught them at an odd moment.

Happy 25th to us!

2011-11-11T09:12:00.001-06:00

My wife and I celebrated 25 years of marriage not long ago. A store-bought card just would not do.

Happy Hallowe'en

2011-10-31T13:28:00.003-05:00

I drew this on a box of treats I mailed to some friends.

Thanx, Matey.

2011-09-27T13:55:00.002-05:00

I woke up from a dream state this morning with this simple image in my head. I then drew it on a piece of cardboard and sent it off in the mail as a thank you postcard for a friend who sent me a proof-of-purchase... I needed an extra one to get a free t-shirt and I was tired of buying Cap'n Cruch cereal.

Postcard Puppet

2011-09-22T16:35:00.004-05:00

We have a family friend who will be spending a few months at school in England. She had to leave her pet conure in the care of her parents while she is away. Knowing she will be missing the little fella, I painted this postcard and dropped it in the mail today:

I cut out the finger holes first. She'll have to trim the rest. I suppose I could've cut the whole thing out and put it in an envelope, but I thought it would be more fun to get a postcard with holes in it. I still think it's cool that I can sent this 3,000 miles for less than a dollar.

Now she can make him sit on her finger any time she wants.

I wonder if the postal carriers will play with it on its journey.

Funding Arts Education

2011-09-15T18:53:00.004-05:00

Every so often when budgetary cuts come before national and state lawmakers, it seems that one of the first things to get the ax is funding for the arts in education. Obviously, as someone who makes my living in the commercial art arena, I am against this, and continually shocked at the shortsightedness of our lawmakers who think that funding the arts is unnecessary.

One only has to look at the history of the world to see that all culture is remembered by its art. From cave paintings and petroglyphs to the pyramids to pop art, all civilizations are remembered by what they created. Art is the lasting impression, not only of the individual artists, but of the society that nurtures them.

Although art belongs to the world, each piece is indelibly linked to the society that birthed it, a reflection of its values, its beliefs, its greatness. The frescoes of Pompeii, the sonatas of Mozart, the Eiffel Tower, dramas by Shakespeare, Aristophanes and Ibsen, Kabuki, Vaudeville, Machu Picchu, John Phillip Sousa, Pablo Picasso and Pablo Naruda, the Sphinx, the Acropolis, the Colosseum in Rome, the Forbidden City, the Taj Majal, Easter Island, the Venus de Milo, tribal masks and totem carvings...the list is endless. But this we know, that every civilization is measured and revered by its artistic creations.

Art and craftsmanship touch everything we do. From the furniture you sit on while you read this, to the design of the car you drive, to the brochure your bank sends you, to your iPod and every song it contains.

So how can we put paintings behind glass, demand music 24 hours a day, pay top dollar for a Broadway show, wear the latest fashions, and at the same time deny the fundamentals of art education to our youth?

I know my timing is way off writing this. But when the next subcommittee pops up trying to cut arts education funding, I'll be ready.

Cubs

2011-09-15T15:50:00.001-05:00

Paint & marker postcard for a friend....

Even More Mail Art

2011-09-06T08:07:00.002-05:00

It was late in the evening.... there was a pile of outgoing mail on the kitchen table...

An almost recognizable Donald Duck:

More Mail Art

2011-08-31T15:23:00.003-05:00

Sending out a contract to a client...

I know I'm not the first (by far) to decorate Netflix envelopes. But I thought it would be fun. I hope it entertains the people at the distribution center. I am going to be disappointed if I ever find out that machines open and shred the envelopes without human interaction.

Shakira & Dora

2011-08-15T08:45:00.007-05:00

Last week, Nick Jr. premiered a Dora the Explorer movie, and along with it a music video by Shakira (you can see it here). As it turns out, I did the storyboards for the music video. It was a bit of a challenge, because they wanted to insert Shakira into scenes from the show. But I only had the storyboards from the movie, and no actual finished animation. So there was a little bit of guesswork there.

The rest of it had fewer restrictions, like where she paints the sky and tosses flowers into the air, etc. I had some loose direction and got just let my imagination and the song lyrics take me where they would go.

I was a subcontractor with Magnetic Dreams, who was working with producer Randy Campbell and director Roman White with the production company Revolution Pictures.

Anyway, here are a few of my boards I thought I'd share.

Thank You Note

2011-08-11T00:21:00.003-05:00

Pen & ink & watercolor on paper.

Sketchbook Project Posted!

2011-08-08T09:50:00.004-05:00

If you would like to see my entire sketchbook I submitted for the Brooklyn Art Library 2012 Sketchbook project, just click here.

This project, as I mentioned in a previous post, is part of the Art House CoOp. Participants sign up to receive a blank 5x7 32 page sketchbook. You pick a theme, and start filling the pages. Mail it back in by the deadline, and it becomes a permanent part of the Brooklyn Art Library. People come in and can check out the sketchbooks (but they don't leave the premises). Some of the books will go on a worldwide tour.

Meanwhile, here are a couple more images from it:

(The envelope I returned the sketchbook in)

Working on a Book Idea

2011-08-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

I've written a draft of a children's book about a monster who lives under a bed. These are some initial designs that I pulled from my memory of the one who lived under my bed.

I've got to go sillier, but had to get the scary ones out of the way first.

More Sketchbook Pages

2011-06-29T16:33:00.005-05:00

Here are the next few pages of my sketchbook for the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project. The theme for my book is "Fill Me With Stories".

I hope to expand these ideas and publish them eventually. Meanwhile, enjoy.

Sketchbook Project Page 1

2011-06-24T13:13:00.003-05:00

This is the opening page to my Art Co-op Sketchbook.

The Sketchbook Project

2011-06-21T09:27:00.005-05:00

A couple of months ago, I joined the 2012 Sketchbook Project through the Art House Co-Op out of Brooklyn.

You order a blank 32-page 5x7 sketchbook, choose a theme, then fill it up and mail it back. It then goes into their library where people come to visit and peruse the art. Eventually, many of these sketchbooks will go on a nationwide tour. The 2011 tour is underway right now.

This is the cover of my book:

As you guessed, the theme I chose from their list was "Fill Me WIth Stories". I'll post the rest of the book here, too.

meanwhile, if you like, check out some of the other books uploaded to their digital library (warning: some content posted there is not family friendly, but most is just fine). And of course, I encourage you to order your own book to fill.

Oh... and this is the back cover...

More Mailable Art

2011-06-20T10:16:00.005-05:00

Been creating postcards for my daughter while she's away at the Governor's School of the Arts and doodling on envelopes. Enjoy.

The Ring-tail Lemur is marker, acrylic & colored pencil (by the way, that's the front & back, so you can see how the tail wrapped around). The Tiger is acrylic & sharpie. The cowboy is marker w/ colored pencil highlights. All images ©2011 Tim Hodge

Oil Painting

2011-06-04T10:04:00.003-05:00

Recently, I borrowed some painting supplies from my sister. I have wanted to try out oils for a long time, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on a set and find out I didn't like it.

So yesterday I spent a couple of hours playing around, getting the feel of the paints and scribbling on scraps of 4x6" cardboard. I did this sketch in about 15 minutes. Looking forward to trying larger works!

Since this is a postcard-sized piece of cardboard, I might stick a stamp on the other side and mail it to my sis as a thank you.

In My Spare Time...

2011-05-04T13:06:00.002-05:00

Just a little side project I've been working on...

"Dance Like No One is Watching"

Sunday Sketching

2011-05-01T19:57:00.002-05:00

I'm not drawing every day like I was doing in March (thanks to Cedric's "March is Sketchbook Month" challenge), but I sure am drawing a lot more than I have been in the last couple of years. Feels good.

Toucan

2011-04-25T19:56:00.002-05:00

I was wanting to draw a parrot, but when I was doing an image search, I ran across a photo of a toucan. He looked more interesting.

Blessed Easter to you!

2011-04-23T22:06:00.002-05:00

More iPad painting

2011-04-21T11:57:00.002-05:00

I stayed up too late the other night painting these. Too much fun to go to sleep!

Back in the Real world...

2011-04-17T12:03:00.003-05:00

Today, I enjoyed breaking out my watercolors again to splash some color on these pen & ink drawings I did last night.

Drawing on the iPad

2011-04-15T12:22:00.005-05:00

For the past few weeks, all the sketches I've been posting here have been drawn with real pens and pencils on real paper. With all the technical advances that I also use on a daily basis, it's still my favorite way to work.

Currently, I draw all my storyboards on a Cintiq tablet, but there's a new development I'm keeping a close eye on: drawing storyboards on an iPad.

I just got one and it seems to be working out. I'm still learning the software right now, and haven't actually used it in any production yet. But hopefully, it will be a good tool.

Currently, I am using Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro for the iPad. It's a little different than the PC version, but still pretty easy to navigate. I've attached a drawing I did last night. I am using a Griffin stylus ($20 at Target).

So far, here are the technical drawbacks:

- Resolution. I haven't been able to create an image over 72dpi. Most studios want 300dpi. So I plan to rough out a first pass on the iPad, then import the panels to my Mac Pro to increase the resolution and clean them up.

- Panel ratio. Again, Sketchbook has a default document size that's approximately 3:4. I'll just have to create a script in Photoshop to crop and resize all my panels.

- The iPad doesn't store documents in the same way as a PC. They have to be stored in the photo album (or Sketchbook Pro gallery). Not a huge deal, but it affects my standard pipeline of delivering art to a client. Just means a couple of extra steps.

Even with these drawbacks, I am enjoying it. It has freed me from my computer desk, which is nice when I need a change of environment. Especially when I want to just do some thumbnails or doodle some ideas. I can draw in the den, or at Starbuck's or on my back porch.

Plus, this is much cheaper than a Cintiq.... though there are limitations.

I still prefer drawing on paper, but this is getting very close to that!

If any of you have gotten an iPad, I'd like to hear your feedback, too!

Film Noir

2011-04-15T08:07:00.003-05:00

I've watched a couple of old film noir movies recently. Love the film style, love the clothing style, love the quick-paced dialog.

Stayin' Groovy

2011-04-12T10:04:00.003-05:00

Aside from "The Jungle Book" and "Lady and the Tramp", "Billy Jack" was also an influence on my childhood.

I've been enjoying throwing some watercolor on these recent sketches. It warps the paper a little bit, so I have to keep it like a wash, and not build up too much color. But that's okay. It's a sketchbook, and not a finished illustration.

Groovy Bear

2011-04-11T15:30:00.002-05:00

Jogging Moose

2011-04-10T22:09:00.003-05:00

I had a fun time sketching today. Just drawing whatever popped into my head. I'll post more of them over the next few days. Here's some wildlife to start.

As I look at these sketches, I can see some influence from some of my favorite illustrators. But I still have a long way to go.

Gorillas are back

2011-04-05T22:33:00.002-05:00

I was thumbing through a magazine, and was struck by a Samsung ad that featured a photo of a gorilla.

Such a soulful look in her eyes. I don't think I captured it, but it was fun trying.

Another Thank-you note

2011-04-03T21:49:00.003-05:00

This is a drawing of my son's friend. His family just gave me a birthday present of some great art supplies, so I used them to create this image.

He's a great artist himself and has been accepted into a couple of reputable art schools that the big animation studios draft from. I'm looking forward to seeing where he ends up.

I was thinking about painting with coffee to create the tones, but the brush they gave me was sable and I didn't want to ruin it on the first time out. I'm still unsure how caffeine affects natural fibers.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 31

2011-03-31T09:35:00.004-05:00

Well, it's the final day of Sketchbook Month (as declared by friend and fellow artist Cedric Hohnstadt). I hope I will keep up this discipline, it's been a great exercise. I mean, I end up drawing something every day anyway, but it's more often for a client. Drawing something just for me has been a great adventure... and a mini vacation every day. (Though I can't promise I will post something new every day.)

What I have learned from Sketchbook Month:

1. Bold simple shapes work best. Even in complex drawings.

2. A personal sketchbook is like a diary. Do not draw with the idea that someone will be looking at it. If you do, your drawings will be self-conscious, and not as good.

3. Corbett Vanoni is the heir apparent to Mort Drucker.

4. I am surprised at how the medium I choose affects my drawing style.

5. I really like drawing gorillas.

Be sure and check out all the great art at http://sketchbookmonth.wordpress.com/.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 30

2011-03-30T10:03:00.003-05:00

Yes, cats always land on their feet. But somehow this time I don't think it makes a difference.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 29

2011-03-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

Variations on a theme...

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 28

2011-03-28T10:02:00.003-05:00

Seems like I've seen an idea like this before, but this image sort of came to me watching my neighbor grill from my second story window, and hearing the birds nesting in my attic. Things just sort of meld.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 27

2011-03-27T20:03:00.004-05:00

Since it's Sunday, I included a doodle of a man of the cloth...

...and since I listen to the Beatles...the Lovely Rita, Meter Maid.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 26

2011-03-26T14:16:00.003-05:00

Last night we watched "Get Low", a 2009 independent film with Robert Duvall, Bill Murray & Sissy Spacek. It takes place in 1930's rural Tennessee. Duvall plays Felix Bush, a hermit who wants to have his funeral before he dies. Bill Murray is the Funeral Home owner.

Check it out.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 25

2011-03-25T14:30:00.002-05:00

Why do baby birds look like they were born inside out?

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 24

2011-03-24T12:28:00.003-05:00

Only about a week left in Sketchbook Month. I wonder if I'll keep up the discipline of drawing every day during April & beyond.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 23

2011-03-23T11:08:00.003-05:00

The last page of this sketchbook! I break in a new one tomorrow!

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 22

2011-03-22T12:01:00.003-05:00

My mind took my pen on a little walk today.

Then I went back and worked it over with some tones...

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 21

2011-03-21T12:04:00.006-05:00

Over the winter, while walking my dog, I ran across the remains of a rabbit. I scooped it up in an extra poop bag I had with me, and buried it in the back yard when I got home.

Last weekend, I exhumed it, and set it to soaking in some diluted hydrogen peroxide, along with a bird skull that my wife found in the front yard. (Never use bleach. It breaks down the bone and turns it into powder.)

Here is the bunny skull for your enjoyment.

I have a skull collection: A deer or two, a cow, a bobcat, a house cat, a beaver, a couple of birds including a blue heron, and a wild pig. Some I found, some I traded for. They are great for comparative anatomy studies, and for freaking out people.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 20

2011-03-20T15:02:00.002-05:00

See the pearl in her ear? She dove for that herself.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 19

2011-03-19T23:13:00.002-05:00

After several pages of bad drawings of gorillas, birds, a horse, my dog, etc... I finally came up with this one. A little smudgey, and those tiny pages in the small moleskin book are hard for me to draw on, but there you go.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 18

2011-03-18T23:33:00.002-05:00

A very so-so self portrait. I think I aged myself 5 or 10 years.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T08:38:00.004-05:00

I drew this on my regular brown paper, but I took it into Photoshop and altered the overall hue in deference to the Emerald Isle, and splashed a little color here and there.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 16

2011-03-16T08:08:00.004-05:00

My friend, Tom Bancroft.

Actually, this looks a little more like his twin brother, Tony.

In case you're new to my blog, the whole "March is Sketchbook Month" is an idea started by my friend Cedric Hohnstadt. He invited dozens of artist friend (professional and non) to get back into daily drawing in their sketchbook, and to post one drawing each weekday. He collects everyone's contributions at: http://sketchbookmonth.wordpress.com/. It's been a great discipline for me.

Check it out.

P.S. Tom Bancroft & Rob Corley (from yesterday's post) are both contributors to Cedric's daily sketch blog, to.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 15

2011-03-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

My friend, Rob Corley.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 14

2011-03-14T13:51:00.001-05:00

After a few more gorilla sketches, I finally ran out. But they'll be back. They always come back.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 13: Gorillas

2011-03-13T17:08:00.004-05:00

Seems that no matter what Sketchbook I pick up this weekend, nothing but gorillas comes out.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 12

2011-03-12T10:08:00.005-06:00

I love gorillas. They are such peaceful creatures. And I am amazed at the raw power and terror that is pent up inside them.

I drew this on a scrap of cardboard that came with some postage stamps I ordered. It's about 6x9", and drawn with a fine point marker, then shaded with gray Prismacolor markers, then highlighted with a white pencil.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 11

2011-03-11T09:30:00.002-06:00

This year I am a judge of the animated entries for the Williamson County Film Festival. It's for high school students in the area. They sent me a postage paid envelop to return my ballot in, so I thought I'd decorate it before I sent it back.

It's not technically in a sketchbook, but it should still count, right?

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 10

2011-03-10T15:03:00.002-06:00

...and part two of yesterday's sketch...

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 9

2011-03-09T20:35:00.002-06:00

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 8

2011-03-08T09:54:00.001-06:00

Oh what joy to ev'ry girl and boy.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 7

2011-03-07T08:31:00.002-06:00

"Frankie & Johnny"

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 6

2011-03-06T11:57:00.002-06:00

I started this page last night. Finished it this morning.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 5

2011-03-05T19:02:00.003-06:00

Technically, the rules that Cedric set up for Sketchbook month say that we have weekends off. But I'm going to try and keep it up.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 4

2011-03-04T13:30:00.002-06:00

The top sketch is Leonard. He visits the same facility where my son goes for physical therapy.

I don't know the girl in the bottom image. She just emerged from my pencil.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 3

2011-03-03T16:32:00.001-06:00

I did a few sketches today... more than usual. But this was the only one I liked.

March is Sketchbook Month...Day 2

2011-03-02T08:54:00.003-06:00

I drew this while my wife was watching "Good Morning America". There was a report on the upcoming Royal Wedding.

March is Sketchbook Month...

2011-03-01T13:33:00.002-06:00

...as declared by friend and artist, Cedric Hohnstadt.

So assuming I can keep up with the schedule, here is the sketch from March first. Hopefully, there will be 30 more to follow.

(Check out Cedric's blog for other artists' links who are joining in the fun.)

Latina Actresses

2011-02-03T19:41:00.004-06:00

These are sketches I did a couple of days ago of Katy Jurado and an attempt at Penelope Cruz. I did them on scraps of cardboard with brush pen, gray marker (for shadows), acrylic & colored pencil (for highlights). They're both about 4x7"... postcard size, in case I ever get the urge to mail them.

I don't think I got Penelope just right. But I like the way Katy turned out. I found the more I tried to make her look like my wife, the better the drawing got. Katy, by the way, was the first Latina nominated for an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress, "Broken Lance" 1954), but she did not win. The second Mexican Actress nominated for an Oscar was Selma Hayek in 2003. Between the two, Rita Moreno won an Oscar in 1962, but in that she is Puerto Rican (and therefore a U.S. citizen by birth), the statistic records often jump over her.

¡Caramba!

Aloha!

2011-01-18T16:38:00.003-06:00

This is a little watercolor postcard I painted recently. The original is 4x6".

Not sure if I really want to stick it in the mail or not.

Post Cards

2011-01-14T10:28:00.006-06:00

I remember as a kid always dreading the writing of thank-you notes. Now, as an adult, I see the need for showing gratitude. But sometimes I get bored simply writing on blank cards, so I decided this year to individualized them a bit. I mailed out custom postcards. Whatever struck my fancy; Some were on nice water color paper, others were on random bits of cardboard backing from used sketchpads. Here are a few of them:

For this one, I found some scratchboard that I bought at a clearance sale over 25 years ago, and finally decided to try it out. I hope it survived the mail process alright. I would hate to think it got all scratched up before my sister received it.

This one is simply a fine-tip marker & Prismacolor® pencil on toned paper.

This drawing of my dog was drawn on a scrap piece of cardboard backing. But I liked the surface and the color. Sometimes bits of leftover cardboard and/or an old grocery bag make the best drawing surfaces!

My dog really sits like this with his forepaws crossed and his rear legs splayed out to the sides. Again, Prismacolor® pencil and a PITT brush pen for the line work. My mom said she was going to frame it.

I painted this lovely Wahine with water color. (In case you didn't know, mahalo is the Hawai'ian word for thank you.) I liked the way she turned out, so I made a few items with this image available on Cafe Press (with and without Mahalo). So if you are inclined to like her, too, you can get your own set of thank you cards!

All images ©Tim Hodge (me).

Bob Newhart

2010-11-18T15:56:00.002-06:00

I was running reruns of "The Bob Newhart Show" on Hulu the other day while I was working. And I took a few minutes to do these sketches. Some likenesses are better than others.

All were done in Photoshop on a Cintiq tablet.

Inception & Memento

2010-08-02T08:47:00.005-05:00

If you have not seen both of these films, please do so before you read this short essay. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Along with the majority of the rest of the U.S. movie-going public, I totally enjoyed Chris Nolan's latest offering "Inception". The mind-bendingly complex plot plays with one's senses like a cat with its injured prey; it's just a fun ride trying to keep up with what is going on. Plus the zero-G fight scenes reminded me of several dreams I have had.

But that's all stating the obvious. As you no doubt guessed from the title, I am going to do a little film-to-film comparison between this movie and Nolan's 2nd feature film, "Memento". This subject is rich enough to fill a graduate thesis paper, but I'll just touch on some of the surface ripples and leave you to think deeper about the whole matter.

Both movies play with your mind and perception of time & reality. And when the lights come up, you sit there with more questions than answers for a long time. They are like puzzles that you spend days trying to sort through. But that's not what makes them great stories. They are both examples of great storytelling. But the meat of what is at the center of the tales is more than the pinball journey through your cerebral cortex.

At the heart of both of the films is a love story. Tragic love stories, to be sure, and both with very similar themes and conflicts. In some ways, they are the same story. Cobb and Leonard are both fighting the same demons. They are both driven, almost unknowingly, by grief, guilt and regret. So strong are these emotions that it alters their perceptions of reality. On the surface, they each have a goal, their conscious desire as some screenwriting books call it. Leonard seeks his wife's killer while battling his short term memory loss. Cobb seeks to plant an idea in someone's head without them knowing. But their subconscious desire in both cases is the relief of the guilt they feel for the death of the one they love the most. And since these stories deal with memory and dreams, the idea of their subconscious-driven motives is pulled to the forefront.

In both cases, the protagonists' choices and decisions are ultimately controlled by their subconscious desires. They make poor choices at times because of the selfish nature of what their inner turmoil longs for to be quieted. Cobb simply needs to apologize, to tell Mal he loves her. Leonard just needs to face what he's been running away from, his own mistakes that led to his wife's death. Both men seek redemption. They want forgiveness.

So whether or not "Inception" is all are just partly a dream, doesn't matter. Cobb has found the redemption he sought. Meanwhile, Leonard will likely keep floundering in his suffering for a long time. His search continues.

The story guru Robert McKee is not impressed with "Memento". At his lecture some years ago, he called it a "young man's script" and said "it means nothing!". He thought it was just style over substance, flashy storytelling with no real meat. For all his smarts, I think he may have simply missed it. Obviously I respectfully disagree. True, the film's meaning was buried deep within a very high concept motif of storytelling and filmmaking. And many people were so taken with the reversed structure of the film that nuances of the core story remained buried. But they are buried in our subconscious, where they should be.

These films are indeed like puzzles. But once we fit all the pieces together, the bigger reward is not merely to be satisfied that we assembled everything in a logical pattern, but instead to step back, look at the picture and see what is tells us.

Rest in Peace, dear friend.

2010-07-19T13:00:00.003-05:00

If you have visited any of the major animation blogs today, you already know that our industry lost a great artist over the weekend. Animator Pres Romanillos lost his second bout with Leukemia.

I worked with Pres for a few years back in Florida, where he was the supervising animator of Shan Yu in Mulan. Pres was just a very open person, and easy to get to know. He was intense with his drawing. Confident in his abilities, yet not cocky about it.

The photos above were taken at the canal behind his house. One day, Pres, Broose Johnson and I took a long lunch and went fishing. Not something that our deadlines would allow too often, but playing hooky occasionally was okay.

Broose and I took our sons fishing there, too. It was Matt's first fishing trip. He ended up catching more than anybody. One day, I'll find those pictures, too.

I kept in sporadic touch with Pres since that time. The last time I saw him was about 6 years ago, just after "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron" came out. (Pres was a supervising animator on it). We ran into each other at an awards event. Of course, that was long before any sickness had set in.

I will miss him.

Auction Part 2

2010-02-26T16:46:00.003-06:00

After a brief snag with eBay, the Help The Hodges auction is starting up again tomorrow (Feb 27).
Be sure to check out all the cool donations and spread the word to your art collecting friends.

Here's a link to HelpTheHodges/com. Tomorrow, they will post a link to the auction listings.

Many thanx to Chad Frye and Tom & Tony Bancroft for putting all this together. They have worked very hard gathering art and promoting the auction. I know that Chad especially has done LOTS of footwork to make this all come together.

Auction Art

2009-12-29T12:34:00.002-06:00

As many of you know, my son was in an auto accident with a train back in August. He has still not regained consciousness, but is doing a little bit better each day.

As you may not realize, our short term insurance expired in September. The rest of the family could renew, but Matt became a pre-existing condition. So Matt's healthcare since that time has all been out of pocket. Vanderbilt Hospital was gracious to us and forgave our six figure debt to them. But Matt's ongoing care and future rehabilitation is still in the balance.

To help off-set these costs, several friends in the animation and comic world have put together an auction to start on January 21 on ebay. There are several prime pieces that have been donated. Go to www.helpthehodges.com to see more.

And thank you!

Odosketch

2009-09-24T22:19:00.001-05:00

Damah Film Festival - Vote Now!

2009-09-06T08:19:00.004-05:00

The Short Film finalists are posted and ready for voting now thru Sept 30. Please go to www.damah.org and vote for your favorite.

(Hint: Your favorite is "Time & Chance")

When Dynamic Surpasses Quality

2009-07-11T09:43:00.004-05:00

This is an unused drawing from the Disney animated short film "John Henry" (2000).

It is from the moment in the film when John thinks he's won, but hasn't, and Polly inspires him to keep on going. I was searching for a visual way to get that idea across, and this idea of passion popped into my head and I scrawled it down on paper. And as much as I liked the drawing , it didn't fit in the rhythm of the story. In the end, it worked better for her to pick up his hammer and start the song reprise.

There is a lot wrong with the drawing:

• Polly is too large (even though he's on his knees, her head is huge!)

• The Hammer handle is bent (oops)

• John's left shoulder looks dislocated (I was attempting foreshortening)

• What's going on with the fold in her kerchief?

However, I like the drawing. It's one of the rare ones where I felt I captured the energy I was going for. I like the angle of their bodies, creating a visual tension. I like the tilt of Polly's head and the slight rise of her right shoulder as she pulls John's face closer. I even like the way I attempted to make John's shoulders relax and fall back.

But what I like most of all is what it teaches me about drawing. Sometimes the energy and dynamic of a composition can override the technical perfection of the drawing. The emotion exhibited here overshadowed my shortcomings.

Of course, it would've been better to have both, but given the choice, I would rather create an emotionally powerful piece than a technically perfect one.

Of course in the world of an animated film production, a story drawing can be left like this. The visual perfection will be added later in layout & animation. The hope is that the artists who follow up with your scenes will keep (and hopefully enhance) the emotion that created the moment.

Funny Licensing

2009-07-08T16:05:00.004-05:00

I never thought that cartoon kitties actually...uh...went to the litter box.

I think this is the weirdest licensing choice I have ever seen. Sure Aristocats cat food. I can understand the appeal - "Mommy! Let's feed our cats what Duchess & the kittens eat!"

But litter?

"That's right kids! Your pets can defecate in the official Aristocats scoopable litter! There's no classier place to poop or pee!"

"A Cannon, a Mule, and a Pack of Lies"

2009-03-02T10:17:00.003-06:00

Exactly half of the sentences in the following story are true.

The saying goes that history is written by the victors. But as so many have pointed out, the glaring exception to that rule is, in fact, the American South. While the rest of the nation has all but forgotten about the “War of Northern Aggression”, every nuance and cranny of each and every military engagement, from major battle to trivial disagreement has been dutifully chronicled in full and intimate depth by the subsequent generations of the still proud, yet defunct nation-to-be.

Take for instance the saga of Frederick J. Page, the namesake of the High School in Rudderville, TN, just outside Franklin.

It was the fall of 1864, and Fred Page owned a cannon. He had no military training, nor high breeding. He simply owned a cannon. That, along with a wife who could sew a great officer’s uniform, gave Page the gumption to promote himself to the honorific rank of Colonel. It was akin to the nerdy kid who owns the only baseball bat in the neighborhood and who then decrees himself team captain. And if Page had lived 100 or so years later, he would have indeed been that nerdy kid. But back to the cannon story…

“Colonel” Page was the only commanding officer in the state who was not present at the infamous Battle of Franklin. It was no fault of his own. You see, the Colonel was held up by a heavy rain that had occurred three days earlier and left his fields a muddy slough.

Now, the Battle of Franklin, is not much more than a footnote in the annals of the War twixt the States. However, it has been fully designated by history buffs to have been a major turning point. For in addition to several hundred enlisted men, the South lost no less than six generals that day.

While the battle was raging not 25 miles away, our friend Freddy had his saddle mule, Sarah, tethered to said cannon attempting in vain to dredge it out of the muddy gulley that now surrounded his farm. Yes, in taking a shortcut, he had become horribly mired in the… uh…mire, and unable to join his ranks with the weapon that quite possible could have turned the tide of the entire war. Had it not been for the massive rain, and Page’s rush through his field, our nation might have indeed been split in two, Texas would have remained under Mexican rule, Alaska would still be Russian and Hawaii’s Royalty may have been ousted by the British or Chinese rather than by our own Senate (under the dispute of President Cleveland).

But the story doesn’t end there. That’s just first chapter. For as a testament to Page’s missteps, that cannon remained in that spot for years, buried halfway in the mud. For twelve seasons, Page simply planted his crops around the defunct boom maker. But then, as his tale of woe evolved more into a yarn of dire heroism, he decided to make that spot the entrance to his farm. He would regale visitors with the epic saga of his rush to get his cannon to the front, how he single-handedly battled a regiment of Yankee foot soldiers, and was knocked unconscious by the butt of one of their “damnéd rifles”. (Though the scar on his forehead bore a striking resemblance to a mule shoe.

To this day, the cannon still rests there, rising proudly from the lawn outside the entrance to the High School that bears his name. And his near battlefield exploits are taught year after year in the history classes there. There is even a poorly executed painting of the struggle done by a senior from the class of 1977 hanging in the school library.

I should have said the cannon sat there. You see, about two weeks ago where the cannon lay half exposed for cheerleaders to pose for photos on, all that greeted the morning’s arrival of students was a gaping hole and a pile of red earth.

You would have thought that the Liberty Bell had been stolen. Williamson County’s answer to CSI was called in. I had no idea there were so many trench coats in Middle Tennessee. Theories have been conjured up. Suspects have been considered. But still the answer to this heinous mystery has yet to even come close to being revealed. Naturally, everyone’s first assumption was that a rival school stole the relic, and it is no doubt hidden away in an unused tobacco barn beside a posh neighborhood currently under development. New home buyers are right now probably wandering through a luxurious model three-and-a-half-bath-split-level, unaware that they are in spitting distance of a treasured antiquity. However, no one has even hinted at taking credit for the act. No ransom demands. Nothing.

The Page High football team desperately wants to enact revenge on the offending school, by kidnapping a goat mascot, or burning something in effigy. But there are no clear targets for vendetta. The football season has been over for months, so the rivalry tensions are in their seasonal ebb.

So the police spent the morning taking castings of all the shoe prints around the hole, only to find that most, if not all of them belonged to the curious onlookers that first got off the school buses. A shovel was left behind, but the perp must have been wearing work gloves and left no prints. No tire tracks. Not even any wheel ruts from the cannon. It was as if the thing had been spirited away.

While suggesting the supernatural is a mere poetic musing, it must be said that many of the local amateur ghost hunters have been very quick to suggest interference from beyond the grave. There have been many reliable accounts that the ghosts of Fred Page and that of Tod Carter regularly reenact their famous duel that ultimately took the life of Col. Page. (It all happened on what is now the practice football field.)

No one was actually injured in the quarrel, however. On the morning of the duel, June 21, 1892, the dampness in the air caused Carter’s pistol to misfire. Page’s shot missed Carter by several feet. But Carter insisted that he have another shot with a reliable weapon. So in a fit of rage, Fred stomped back into the house to retrieve another. But his front steps were horribly termite infested and finally broke through under his 230 pounds of angry flesh. He broke his left femur, refused the treatment of a surgeon (who was related to Carter), and died of gangrene 9 days later. Believers hold that Carter has returned to get his due.

So, as theories are flying and accusations are thrown around like so much toilet paper in the neighbor’s trees, an interesting thing happened yesterday evening. One Paige Fredrickson (no relation), a freshman on staff of the school paper, was covering the event from her own angle, with the assumption that it was an inside job. As she was taking photos of the crime scene and comparing them to the yearbook photos of the cheerleaders posing on the gun barrel, she made a remarkable observation.

Without telling anyone other than her older brother Adam, she set about recovering the cannon on her own. You see, late last night Paige and Adam took their shovels to the dirt pile beside the hole. And as they re-filled the pit, Paige’s assumption became confirmed fact. Yes, the cannon had not been moved at all, but was resting peaceably underneath the mound of earth that came out of the hole that had been dug beside it.

Paige has been rightfully hailed as a hero. Or, heroine, if you don’t mind your heroes sounding like illicit drugs.

The practical joker (or jokers) who masterminded the plot is still at large, but my guess is that he (or she, or they) will be numbered among the graduates this spring. Whoever they are, they have a great ability to keep a straight face and managed not a single grin or other giveaway during the entire school assembly this afternoon where Miss Fredrickson was honored.

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering which parts of this story have been made up. For I did promise that half of the sentences are true. Now, with a sigh, I must confess that the first sentence was not one of them. In fact, very little of this story is factual. However, I hope that even though you knew there were lies, that you wanted to believe them and were entertained just the same.

Yes, there was a Battle of Franklin where six Southern Generals died. And according to “Gone With the Wind”, Rhett Butler’s actions that day earned him a commendation after the war. And while Rhett Butler is obviously a fictional character, Tod Carter is not, and was indeed a war hero. Fred J. Page was also a real person, but I have no idea who he was, when he lived, nor why the school (that has no cannon in front) was named for him. Oh, and he never had a mule named Sarah. Besides, you all should know that all mules are born male, and sterile.

Brando

2009-02-28T10:51:00.004-06:00

I was thumbing through a magazine the other day and ran across this photo from "A Streetcar Named Desire". I haven't seen this movie in years.

Anyway... I started drawing Stanley and Blanche.

I was amazed to find how Brando's profile resembled the classic profiles of Renaissance sculptures and painting. Very chiseled - opposing curves and arcs. I supposed it's the Italian look.
(Michelangelo's Libyan Sybil for the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Note the similarities in the bone structure:)

Trying harder to capture the anger in his eyes here. Still not sure I got it.

I started getting more and more caricatured. And included Vivian Leigh in this one. I didn't get the tilt of her head quite right. She's tilted a bit toward the camera in the photo. It was a bit too subtle for me to capture. Especially since I went straight to ink - no pencil underdrawing.

I intentionally pushed them closer together. I liked the intimacy & tension in the moment. So pushing them closer and increasing Brando's leaning angle kept that feel.
Then I just started doodling random faces in pencil, trying to see how much information I could capture with a minimum of detail.

Kurtz & Friends

2009-02-25T12:11:00.006-06:00

This is an original production cel from a 1970s commercial by the animation house Kurtz & Friends. I have no idea what the product is. If anyone can shed any light on it, please let me know.

I got this art in trade for something years ago. Bob Kurtz was one of my animation heroes as I was growing up. He and his staff have produced tons of great animation, from commercials, to film credits, to George Carlin routines.

Watching this the off-the-wall approach to animation, design and storytelling was a great contrast to the high art of Disney that I was constantly feeding myself. It was like enjoying a shot of bathtub hooch after sipping on fine wine. What a wake-up call!

Check out the line work. Even though it's rough, the drawing is solid. The shape doesn't change form from drawing to drawing. They style might look whimsical, almost childish, but the artist knew what he was doing. It's great drawing.

UPDATE: I just got this email from Kenneth Smith at Kurtz & Friends:

This cel is from a Holly Farms 30second commercial called "Frozen" -

Agency: Long Haymes Carr - dated 9/1/89

This cell refers to the line "Chicken-cicles" - in another scene there's a chicken frozen from the neck down in a block of ice. There were 2 other spots in the series, "No Preservatives" with a chicken mummy and "Color" with technicolor chickens, none of which would be acceptable to the folks at Holly Farms.

"Time & Chance" on IMDb

2009-02-12T19:25:00.002-06:00

I don't mean just the listing. I mean you can see the entire film on your own computer now!

Click here.

I hope you enjoy it! (But you won't hurt my feelings if you don't).

Animation and Profit

2009-02-09T20:30:00.003-06:00

Keith Lango just posted an item talking about the box office performance of many non-major animated films these days (Coraline, The Tale of Despereaux, etc). If I understand Keith's point clearly, he appreciates smaller, lower budget films and their modest needs to turn a profit.

I am inclined to agree. But it's difficult for studio execs to see this paradigm in the shadow of Dreamworks' Panda & Shrek box office haul not to mention Pixar's impeccable batting average. Not enough people see the place for a small animated film, yet many get made and succeed all the time (Persepolis, $9.99, Waltz With Bashir, Hoodwinked).

I think it's interesting that all of the major players (except Disney) have only been open since the mid-90's, after The Lion King & Toy Story set records* and studio execs saw dollar signs. Everyone (including the overlords at the House of Mouse) forgot that only 2 or 3 of the films Walt personally released made a profit on their initial box office run. (Snow White, Cinderella & The Jungle Book -- I'm counting JB even though it was released a few of months after Walt passed.) Everything else lost money. Dumbo would probably have made more if it hadn't been released just before the Pearl Harbor attack - I think it pretty much broke even, but I could be wrong.

From 1938 - 1988-ish (the Little Mermaid/American Tale era), conventional Hollywood wisdom said that animated films are a money pit. Can you think of any non-Disney animated film that made money during that time? Most (Gullivers Travels, Fritz the Cat, Secret of NIHM, Charlotte's Web, Gay Purree, etc.) were lucky if they broke even.

Walt somehow managed to stay afloat by looking at the long haul... and by embracing new mediums, like TV theme parks, and diversifying in to live action films. While all those other studios closed. (Or in the case of Hanna/Barbera just got out of the feature business).

The sad thing is that everyone wants to be Pixar... or at least have their bank account. But success like that not only counts on risking everything you've got, but you also have to commit to creating the best idea possible... or at least an idea that appeals to the widest audience. If you want to create a niche film, fine! Just don't spend $150mil on it and expect a $300mil return.

Others want to create the animated version of the success of some of the recent indie hits, i.e. Napoleon Dynamite, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, el Marichi, etc. They forget about the modest successes of low-budget films like Dan in Real Life or Little Miss Sunshine. I think Coraline and Despereaux fall into this category. They're not huge bankrolled films, and hopefully investors aren't counting on more than a modicum of return.

I think that's about all I've got for now. Feel free to tell me all the films and studios I forgot to mention that counter my point.

- T

* In all fairness to Laika, this studio didn't "spring up" in the wake of the 90's animation boom like the others. It was an "outgrowth", shall we say, of Will Vinton Productions, who produced the Claymation® feature "The Adventures of Mark Twain", after years of commercials, TV specials and feature effects.

Captain Blood Part 3

2009-01-28T15:06:00.007-06:00

This is my final entry about the classic film, Captain Blood. I could go on and on, but that would just be spoonfeeding you all the great imagery. Go look it up for yourself. You can find it on Netflix.

Anyway, act 2 of the story deals with the prisoners' revolt and how Dr. Blood becomes the pirate Captain Blood. The revolt is staged at night, creating lots of dramatic lighting. I think the prisoners were probably aiming for dramatic lighting to increase the effectiveness of their escape. Note this shot:

It could have been lit any number of ways. The filmmakers could have created a full moon so as to fully illuminate the ship. But since a moonless night is better for a coup, the art director used that to his advantage. The main light source is from windows, but mostly from cannon fire. The cannons create a sheet of smoke and every subsequent blast lights it up, creating a beautiful sillouhette of the ship. The haze of the smoke also creates a nice separation of foreground & background layers.

Meanwhile in the town, Blood and his gang are escaping guards and soldiers at every turn. Note the use of shadow cast on the wall again (like in the early scene of Dr. Blood working on the patient). This composition keeps our hero in the foreground, and his enemy on a giant stage behind. But because it is a cast shadow, the bad guy is HUGE in the frame, putting our hero at a disadvantage (visually).
This is a nice subtle shot. Blood comes into an archway. He is rim lit so that his silhouette reads against the far wall...
But then he comes around the wall and steps into the light, his white shirt and fair skin standing out nicely against the gray wall.

The rest of these shots are random moments throughout the story. I pulled them out because I like the layering effect the cinematographer managed. Also there is an abundance of readability - characters standing out (dramatically at times) from their background. It;s all part of insuring that the audience is looking exactly where you want them to.

This is a beautiful moment. There are several planes of props and characters, creating deep space and extreme perspective. Notice that the light source (not the candles) is coming from below. It creates and uneasy feeling, and also casts those looming shadows on the wall. Those shadows create a darkened space for our two prominent actors to read against. See? There are 4 characters in the scene, but only two are significant to the moment. the others are just set dressing. You can see them, but you don't pay much attention to them.

Again, layered elements for drama. One character is lit fully so as to have the stage all to himself. He is small in the frame, so they used the candelabra to block off part of the frame so it wouldn't feel so empty. The frame is effectively split in half and the soldier fills his side of it like an el Greco painting.

This moment isn't terribly dramatic. However, I like the use of the low horizon (even though the top of the hills splits the frame almost perfectly in half). The Galley of the ship is the darkest element in the frame, and it is set against the lightest element - the clouds. That is where your eye goes first - to the point of greatest contrast. However, in this moment, there is another element that doesn't come across as well in a still. There are three rowboats mid frame. In motion, your eye will be attracted to movement. And if everything else in the frame is still, the greatest contrast will be whatever is moving.

This frame might be from early in the film, I don't quite remember. The downshot increases the perspective just a little, and puts Dr. Blood "above" the other character. If the camera were shooting level, Blood would have been smaller in the frame and his head would have been below the other guy's. Once again, it's got a nice dramatic foreground element (the lantern), and even though there are two characters in the shot, the lighting on Dr. Blood keeps our attention on him.

During one of the battle scenes, they increased the level of visual frenzy by putting the camera beneath the stairs. In this case, the foreground element blocks part of our view, which is disquieting. The camera is angled which puts more tension into the shot, too.
One particular trick they did in this film, which I can't show in stills, is that whenever we are on board a ship, the camera slow rocks forward and back, creating the subtle feeling that we are rocking on the water. In that it was all shot on a sound stage, it's a very effective touch.

I end on this shot of Olivia de Havilland in repose. It's not a dramatic shot by any means. It's a very sedate moment in the story. I point it out for its sophisticated use of values (the gray scale). This room is full of stuff: furniture, moulding, drapery, windowpanes... lots of shapes and lines that could interfere with the shot. But with careful use of lighting as well as set dressing, Miss de Havilland is perfectly the center of our attention. She is dressed in white surrounded by a white pillow and white sheets. Everything else in the frame is middle gray to black. The illumination outside the windowpanes fights a little, but not horribly. If they were any darker, this would look like a gothic romance.

I hope you've enjoyed my little exercise. Good night.

Captain Blood Part 2

2009-01-24T13:07:00.005-06:00

Here are a few more frames from "Captain Blood". We pick up the story as Dr. Blood and all the other detainees are being lead into court:

This is another one of the moments in the film where they create an empty space then fill it. Notice on the frame above, the dominant imagery is the row of gallows awaiting their clientele. Then as soon as we absorb that image, the prisoners march in rank and file. It's very effective.
Once inside the court, we are greeted with this stark image of the judge. I love the swath of shadow creating an angle across the upper left corner of the screen.
They even cheat it a little closer to m'Lord on the close-up.As he reads the names of the accused, only Peter Blood maintains his innocence. But of course is sent away in irons just the same as the rest of the rabble.

Once on board the ship, we get more prison style images (remember Blood's intro in the previous post?). Here they shot this poor soul through the grating of the ship's deck.
Then cut to the reverse angle, as he's beaten back down. Many of the shots in this film make use of layers and foreground elements. And notice those angled lines across the frame. It really adds to the drama. Remember, this is an era when cutting was slower, and camera movement was much more subdued than today, so they had to work with different tools to create tension within a shot, or scene.
Shots like this one make use of the "frame within a frame" concept. Unlike paintings or comic books, you can't alter the size and shape of your frame. It's a constant shape (either a 16:9, or 1:1.85, or in this case a 4:3 ratio). So sometimes we need to create smaller openings within the field of view, making a frame within the frame. Sure they could've pushed in for a close up, and Mr. Flynn wouldn't have minded that, but the emotion of this shot didn't warrant a close up, plus they would have lost the imagery of the character behind bars.
Once they get to the islands, we meet the villain, the girl and her father (the current Governor).

I chose to include this shot, not because of any dramatic staging, but for the very subtle use of the parasol to highlight our lady fair. If she had chosen to keep the bumbershoot closed, the background would have been busier and she wouldn't have read as well against it.
As it is, her face is the object of our attention no matter who is talking. Her face sits there like a jewel on a pillow, and ultimately framed by the two other actors. No question who is the highest paid performer in this shot.

Later, we enter the prison camp. I love this shot where this fellow is banging the bell/gong. It's an empty circle, a perfect frame waiting to be filled.
And wouldn't you know it... here comes the villain, riding into the shot, right into that circle frame.

Immediately, they cut to a close up of the bay guy. It's a great edit.

Captain Blood

2009-01-22T08:03:00.006-06:00

One of my favorite very old films is "Captain Blood" starring Errol Flynn, Olivia deHavilland and Basil Rathbone. It's the story of an English doctor who is arrested for saving the life of a rebel to the Crown and gets sent to a penal colony in the Caribbean. He leads a prisoner rebellion, becomes a pirate and eventually becomes the Governor of Jamaica. Oh, and he gets the girl.

(Trivia: This was the first pairing of Flynn and Rathbone. They would go on to have more sword fights in the classic "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian). Flynn was an unknown at the time, and despite his goofy haircut, this film set him on his way to stardom.)

It's a very moody film, and like many movies of the 30's its art direction is very stage driven, many of the compositions are based on traditional painting conventions. I supposed some of that tendency comes from the fact that the bulky cameras of the day were much less mobile than modern cameras, so most of the visual drama depended more on composition.

This is one of the opening shots where a messenger arrives at the door of Doctor Peter Blood (cool name, huh?). Notice the warped perspective:

This shot is a bit on the nose, but cool nonetheless:
Here we get one of the first shots of Errol Flynn as he looks through the window in the door. We see him behind bars. It's not his entrance shot, but close enough to make a statement.
The Dr. Blood goes to get dressed, while the messenger turns around to tell the lady across the street what's going on. It's a fairly lame set-up for exposition. We all know he's really talking to us. But the screen composition is still very cool. Note how they made sure there are foreground elements to enhance the feeling of depth.

Soon the patient is brought in (near death) and the good Doctor works in very dramatic lighting:

And once he saves the poor chap, the authorities enter right across that huge space left open in the frame for them.

This motif of creating a space in a shot, then filling it with character entrances is used a lot in this film. It's a cool style. They create a composition that doesn't look empty, yet use that open space for dramatic purposes.

I'm going to post some more frames later. This is such a great old film to watch. Every shot is very beautiful. (Yes, the storytelling is a bit stilted and slow by today's standards, but it's still a good yarn).

Weirdest Interview Ever

2009-01-09T14:03:00.003-06:00

Andy Warhol & Bianca Jagger have a conversation with Steven Speilberg (circa 1982).

I tried to embed the video but I'm having trouble. Click HERE instead.

Old Men

2009-01-07T18:35:00.003-06:00

I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" recently and thought of (among other things) these two drawings I did in a meeting a few years ago.

I am fascinated at how skin sags all over the face as one ages, yet remains taught and shiny on the scalp. I enjoyed drawing that sternocleidomastoid. It's one of my favorite muscles.

I know what I thought of the movie. What did you think? I also started reading the original F. Scott Fitzgerald story. It's different. Very different.

Vote For Me!!

2008-12-24T10:03:00.002-06:00

My 1 Page Script, "Art School: Day One" is a finalist in the WILDsound 1 Page Screenplay Competition (as I have posted before).

A few days ago, all 10 finalists were read aloud by actors at a live event. Now, videos of each finalist have been posted online for he public to vote on.

This is where you come in.

Please visit this link: WILDsound One-Page Competition, and vote for my script.

There are no cash rewards, but the winning script will be made into a short film.

Thanx to you all!

Couple of blogs to check out...

2008-12-11T09:29:00.006-06:00

Three great friends of mine just started art blogs.

You should check them out. Now.

• Chuck Vollmer

• Michael Spooner

• Joe Spadaford

(Click on the names to go to the links)

Art & Commerce.

2008-12-03T14:51:00.002-06:00

It's called Show Business. Show Business. Sad but true.

Why sad? Because the people who create the show often get run over or left out in the cold by the business. Usually because they forget the business. They do it for the love or the art. It's nobel and it's a comforting mindset. But in the end, we're all basically share-croppers. And when the crops start to be less bountiful, the land owners cut off the workers.

"But who is going to grow your food now?"

"We'll figure out a cheaper way. Meanwhile, what you're earning isn't paying for the land I bought." Says the Land Baron.

"But isn't that because you paid twice what it was worth?" cries the serf.

"That's because I was lead to believe that there was pirate treasure underground." comes the reply. "And it's not there. Now, good-bye."

What does all this mean? It means that earlier this week, the London Company, Entertainment Rights, and its step-child Classic Media decided to lay off two thirds of the most profitable arm of their beleaguered empire, Big Idea, Inc.

No, the Overlords didn't make their decision for spite or save pork-barrel spending. Business is bad (and business decisions were poor). So who who pays the price? Yep. You guessed it.

It's not personal. It's just business.

Sidetracked

2008-11-19T20:20:00.003-06:00

While I was working on storyboards today, I happened to catch a brief glimpse of the Nixon/Frost interviews from the 70s (the TV was on in the background). I remembered watching the trials on television that summer. No cable and there was nothing else on, what was an 11-year-old to do?

Nixon was one of the first caricatures I ever tried to draw. It was pretty easy, especially because so many talented editorial cartoonists had worked it all out for me.

Anyway, today, when I caught that glimpse of Tricky Dick, I had to scrawl him out on the drawing I was in the middle of. Hopefully, the client won't notice Ol' Milhouse peering into the corner of the frame. Maybe I'll tell them it's another break-in, a whole new scandal.

Geezeo

2008-11-15T14:24:00.003-06:00

I recently finished a freelance gig, producing this short video that introduces the financial web network, Geezeo. Geezeo is kind of like a financial Facebook. Check it out.
I would like to say that I did it all myself, but I had a lot of help.

The narration was provided by Doug Griffin, a local radio personality. The score is by Kurt Heinecke. And while I designed the characters, the animation was provided by the talented Sam Fleming, and his crew. I wanted to animate everything myself, and was trying to quickly learn ToonBoom, but I got a number of other jobs and couldn't get to them all. Luckily, Sam was available and could work within the short time frame I gave him.
The spot is also available on YouTube.

Script Finalist (again)!

2008-10-29T21:10:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago, I read about this cool screenplay competition: A ONE PAGE contest. Yes, tell a complete story in a single script page.

If you've worked in a screenplay format, you know there's not a lot of room for verbose language. This isn't standard prose. A single script page works out to roughly a minute of screen time.

Oh, and this isn't a hook, or an intro to a larger story. It's a complete mini-plot.

I read about the competition and became intrigued. I have several stories started... just little scenes that I want to flesh out into something bigger. Most of them are just languishing on my hard drive. But I had this one. One that I thought started out pretty funny, but the punchline to to the opening gag was in the middle of page two. So I started cutting and trimming, honing and polishing. Eventually, I got what I wanted down to a single page. (And only 2 lines of dialog).

Maybe I can post it here. I'll see if the contest promoters don't mind.

Anyway, I am one of 30 finalists. On November 12, 10 winners will be announced. Those 10 scripts will be read aloud on Nov. 21, then people will vote online for their favorite. The winning script will be made into a short film.

So, help me out here. Vote for me (but only if you like mine the best). Thank you!

UPDATE - 11/13/08: My screenplay is one of the 10 finalists!
The 10 finalists scripts will be read on Dec. 19 (pushed back from the original date).

Running into an Old Buddy

2008-10-26T22:27:00.005-05:00

Last week, I got an email from Tom Bancroft telling me that Barry Cook would be lecturing that night at a local Art/Film School.

I had to reschedule a couple of things, but I cleared my evening and joined my old Disney pals for a drive up to Nashville to listen to him pontificate to the young ardent film students there.
Barry, as you may or may not know directed Mulan (along with Tony Bancroft). It was a fun listen to Barry tell stories of his youth and anecdotes from working on Mulan, Trail Mix-Up and Off His Rockers. But Barry wasn't all about reminiscing, he was also full of good advice for the up and coming generation. And believe it or not even after 25 years in the animation game, I got some good advice from him, too. One of the kids asked what he would say to young filmmakers to help them get a film made. He said, "Don't ask permission."

Truer words were never spoken. I didn't ask anyone to make my short film, I just did it. Now I find myself asking people if I can make another, bigger project. I think I just need to push through and make it happen. Yes, it's hard (and expensive), but people respond to initiative. I just need to get started.

No Free 'Ukulele

2008-10-13T09:54:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, I entered a contest on Ukulele Underground to design a t-shirt. First prize was an 'ukulele. They have a rooster puppet that appears in their videos from time to time, so I took that as my motif. (Roosters run wild on the island of Kauai, where the videos are shot).
I was hoping to win a free 'ukulele, but I didn't make the cut. Oh well, my design is here for you to enjoy.

I have a couple other ukulele, so that's okay.

(p.s. The Hawai'ian pronunciation of 'Ukulele is OO-koo-lay-ley, not YOU-koo-ley-lee, like we usually say on the mainland. And in Hawai'ian, you don't add an "s" to make something plural.)

Another

2008-09-29T18:46:00.003-05:00

I was just notified that "Time & Chance" was accepted into the Rockport Film Festival in the coastal town of Rockport, TX. My good friend Eric Thomas hails from there, so it was my solemn duty to enter. I'm very glad I did.

Also, things are going well here at the CCIFF. "T&C" screened this afternoon at the Universal Citiwalk AMC and was received well (lots of laughter). I hope to report more good news as the week progresses.

UPDATE 10/2/08: "Time & Chance" didn't take home any awards last night at the Gala, but I did get a lot of encouraging feedback from the other filmmakers and audience members.

Script Finalist

2008-09-17T21:22:00.005-05:00

Here's an out of the blue item: My script "Bad Moon Rising" (or at least the first ten pages of it) is one of four finalists in the Wi-Fi "First Ten" Screenplay Competition. (Wi-Fi is the Wilmington Film community.)

Yes, it's one of those script competitions where you enter the 1st 10 pages of your script. After all, that's the part that's supposed to grab the reader and compel them to continue.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Any guesses what it's about from the title? (And Andrew, you can't play since you read it already.)

UPDATE 9/23/08: I just found out that I did not win the competition, but I was one of the top four finalists (no ranking, however). My congratulations to Julie Kenner and her script "Kitty Hawk"!