Chancellor Cole, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

I've been playing a lot of Zelda games recently so I currently have the notion to draw a few of my favorite characters from the series. If you've never seen this one before, his name is Chancellor Cole and he's from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. There's just something about a guy that wears two top hats.

2 More

The way the bottom one came about is kind of funny to me. I suppose having my characters be in conversation while staring blankly at a television is my version of Charlie Brown and Linus leaning against their brick wall. That being the case, I started drawing the bottom comic when I quickly realized that I had drawn it before. So, other than new dialog bubbles, it is identical comic #21. I feel a little wrong about that.

Too Vague?

I'm not sure if I'm being too vague in this joke. Terry is eating Cinnamon Life cereal. Paul says variety is the spice of life. Terry got confused. Get it? I considered actually drawing a box of Life cereal on the table, but I didn't want to hit the reader over the head with the joke.

2 more comics

I finished 2 comics today. It seems like I'm slowly moving toward (or languishing in) the "talking head" system of gag cartooning. I'm not sure if I'm even opposed to that, I'm just noticing it.

Newspaper Comics Galore

More comics. Clearly, doing newspaper-style comics has been my main drawing focus recently. If you like to read my blog, but you don't like my comics, I apologize. It'll probably be this way for at least another month.

The first glimpse of Penny

Hey, look. It's the first appearance of Paul's girlfriend, Penny.

More Comics

Yes. More comics. If I was to do this one again, I'd make their head shadows hit the wall at more of an angle from the TV. Next time.

The Introduction of Penny

This week's comic includes the first reference to Paul's girlfriend, Penny. She should be showing up in person soon enough.

Another Hodgepodge Comic

Eh. I don't like this one much. Drawing Oliver's inverted egg-shaped head is tough to keep consistant. I need to work on that.

Paul The Owl and Veronica Lodge

I never did understand what Archie saw in Veronica. Betty is clearly the better choice. Paul agrees.

Back to Hodgepodge Comics

I'm back to doing my old standby, Hodgepodge comics. My new goal is to work within the limitations that I would if I were a daily newspaper strip. That mostly aplies to size (a strict 4" x 11") and content (reaching as wide of an audience as possible).

Nate

Yes, his eyes are supposed to be that big. It's part of the plot.

Mel

I am well aware, that Mel looks like kind of a goon. But, I kind of like that about him.

Clair(e)

I'm working on a comic book right now. I'm sure I'll be posting lots of images from it as they develop. This is some concept art for one of the secondary characters.

Dr. Sketchy's at Titmouse Studios

I went to my first Dr. Sketchy's session last night at Titmouse Studios. I haven't done any figure drawing in years, so I was super rusty, but it was tons of fun. I'll definitely be going to some more sessions soon.

2 Hoboes Stealing A Pie

This started as a rejected sketch for the Pie Thieves logo, but I liked it enough that I wanted to see a finished version of it.

Sir Isaac Lime

I was playing around with different Photoshop brushes at work today, and out came Sir Isaac Lime. I'm vaguely and lackadaisically working on a project involving the Otter Pops at work right now. Will anything ever come of it? Who knows.

Animation Reel 2011

My first animation reel. I just finished it.

Count Chocula

Another episode of Childhood Tweets. This one is about Count Chocula. A couple of production sketches are below.

Pie Thieves Logo and Bumper

This is the logo and the bumper for the production company "Pie Thieves". I did the design and animation, and Scott C. Leeds did the music and effects.

It went through a few different versions before it became a 1930's cartoon fox and dog stealing a pie. At first it was a couple of charming Norman Rockwell-esque hoboes, followed by mischievous turn-of-the-century gentlemen, followed by a 1960's cartoon fox and dog.

The looping background.

Some early sketches and abandoned ideas are below.

Undeniably, The Best Way To Eat A Pop-Tart

The first of another series of comics I've decided to start. I drew the original sketches 3 months ago, got a really bad stomach flu, and just finished the color version tonight. The original sketches and the photoshop guide I made are below.

The Velvet Mouse Show character redesign

These are some redesigned versions of the main 4 characters from The Velvet Mouse Show. The Original versions were designed to be reminiscent of 1970's Hanna-Barbera and Filmation cartoons. These designs are much closer to what a consider my own style of depiction. If you've never seen the original character designs, you can check them out here.

Preliminary sketches.

Childhood Tweets 001

Here's my latest bit of animation. It's the first of a possible series of very brief animated shorts. Basically, I take any tweet with the "#childhood" label, and make a little scene out of it. Scott C. Leeds then scores it and it's done. The plan is to make them as quick as possible. This one took - i don't know - maybe 3 days? I'm not entirely sure.

Here are a couple of pre-production sketches.

More stuff at childhoodtweets.com

1930's-esque Animation Background

I had to build a looping 1930's era animation background for a logo I'm working on. I'll post more as it comes.

Some pixel art for a "Bad Teacher" game

I drew and animated a couple of games for the "Bad Teacher" movie website. Both are live now here: www.areyouabadteacher.com .
This was a test frame from early-on.

Threadless Muppet Shirt Contest

I've been working on a shirt design for a Threadless contest recently. The theme is Muppets and friendship.

If you want to be really nice you can give me a 5 ranking on the website here: http://disney.threadless.com/themuppets/submission/966/
Here's the original sketch. From top-to-bottom, left-to-right, it's Gonzo, Kermit, Fozzie, Dave Goelz, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz.

Woody Redesign

Today's redesigned character is Woody from Toy Story. This'll probably be my last redesign for a while (probably).

Bullwinkle Redesign

Here's another character redesign. Bullwinkle this time. I think Woody from Toy Story is next (probably).

Secret Squirrel Redesign

Last year I thought it would be fun to redesign a different cartoon character every day. It was pretty entertaining, but I quickly realized that (because I was doing so many) I didn't always have enough time to do a quality job. After a couple of weeks I gave up on the whole thing. Looking at them recently though, a few hold up pretty well, so I've decided to ink and paint some of them. This one is Secret Squirrel. More to come (probably).

"In The News" comic #1

I'm going to start a few different genres of comics. This will give me the opportunity to play around with different depiction styles to match different formats. Here's a "topical" new series called "In The News".

The Latest Velvet Mouse Episode

Hodgepodge Comic #11

My wife and I were watching a lot of the Ricky Gervais Show before I drew this one. Cartoon Ricky's laugh heavily influenced Paul's laughing pose.

The Velvet Mouse Show: Lucky's in Love (parts 1-3)

Here's parts 1 through 3 of the latest storyline. The new part is the last couple minutes, but I've stitched the first 2 parts to the front so it's all a bit more coherent than before.

Dexter / Paul

I was watching Dexter's Laboratory last night when I realized that Dexter's body shape was very similar to my character Paul's body shape. So I thought I would do a few sketches of Dexter and let it inform some Paul sketches.

The main thing I noticed was how Dexter's head juts over just a bit beyond his body. I like it. I may continue using this for Paul in the future.