Ben Balistreri

My Top 50 Marvel Comics Characters: (#'s 50-26)

2011-11-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

Growing up I always dreamed of being a Marvel Comics artist. Mark Gruenwald, (one time editor in chief of Marvel) was a student of my Dad's at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and that gave me extra inspiration that I could make it there one day. Eventually my interests steered towards animation, but I still would like to illustrate a comic for Marvel one day if I got the opportunity. Here are the first 25 characters in my top 50 list. (#'s 25-#1 will get posted some other day, but it might take awhile). Once I finish all 50 my plan is to auction the original art on ebay and donate the proceeds to MS research. More on that whenever I finish the rest.

Gobber meets Thor

2011-10-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a sequence I wrote, (along with John Puglisi) and boarded for the "Legend of the Boneknapper" DVD. Gobber is telling a tall tale to the kids about one of his encounters with the Boneknapper. He starts the scene being trapped under the Dragon's foot. It stayed pretty close to what I did but we had to cut the Hammerhead Yak spraying milk. :(

Wild Kratts!

2011-02-27T21:34:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I got an amazing opportunity to work for a couple of amazing guys, Chris and Martin Kratt, The Kratt Brothers! Famous world wide for their hit Zoboomafoo, as well as Kratt's Creatures, these guys hired me to help design the characters for their new animated show, "Wild Kratts". The show airs now on PBS and you can check out lots of clips and cool things on their website:

WILD KRATTS

"Me and My Shadow" Announced!

2010-12-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

The film I've been storyboarding on this past year at DreamWorks got it's first official press release! "Me and My Shadow" is one of the most exciting projects I've ever been a part of. The show is going to be a mix of CG and Hand Drawn animation. They did a test of the look that freaking blew my mind!!! Only 2 more years before you get to see it! Here's a link to the press release on Slashfilm:

ME and MY Shadow PRESS RELEASE

Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special Boards

2010-12-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

Rex Red Coat

2010-11-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here's an one-of-a-kind action figure, (although he doesn't actually move), I sculpted along with a hand painted card for the "Super Big Micro Show" at Gallery Nucleus. The idea for the show started with a bunch of Disney artists who created small pieces of art for a tiny gallery in the animation building. The exihibit at Nucleus will feature art from over 75 artists from Disney, DreamWorks and Pixar. All pieces are hand crafted, (no computer print outs) and each is restricted to being no bigger than 6 by 6 inches. (Mine ended up being 6 by 5 inches). The show runs December 11th through January 4th with an opening reception on Dec 11th from 7 to 11pm. You can find out more about the show by clicking on these links:

Micro Gallery Blog

Nucleus

Legend of the Boneknapper on DVD Today!

2010-10-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

How to Train Your Dragon is out on DVD today!!! Along with the movie you can get a second short called "The Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon". It was directed and written by my good friend John Puglisi, and features some amazing hand drawn animation by Ken Duncan's studio. I got to design the characters for the 2D sequences and story board on a couple scenes as well.

When John asked for me to design a shark for Gobber to take on I pleaded with him to let it be a HammerHead. The Great White seemed overdone and I always thought HammerHeads were cooler. It was fun to try and make him as fierce looking as the dragons in the film.

I made this model sheet of the HammerHead shark based from boards done by Dave Pimentel.

These were some concepts for different appendages that Gobber could use for his arm. I was sad the "sheep on a leash" didn't make it but I'm glad the guitar got in.

I had to create Gobber as 4 different ages. Originally he was going to loose an appendage each time we went back to him, but due to the short running time of the film that story line got scrapped. I guess he must loose his leg sometime after the last encounter with the Boneknapper.

These were based from some of John's boards.

Based off of Dave's boards.

Once again based off of Dave's boards.

Based off of John's boards

There wasn't much time to create a style for this short, but I tried to push elements wherever I could. There's some really cool hand animation in the last flashback sequence of Gobber playing his guitar. Sorry I don't know who animated it.

These were some Frozen Vikings trapped in a glacier from the first flashback. I referenced some of Nico Marlet's original designs from the feature to come up with these guys.

The guy on the right is Gobber's dad. I was thinking of James Hetfield of Metallica when I designed him. The other guys didn't make it in the final cut but the middle one was going to be a young Stoic.

UPDATE: You can check out some of Matt Williames amazing pencil tests for the 2d sequences at his blog:

Hand Drawn Nomad

Seaweed #2 Update

2010-09-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting work on the second "Seaweed" book, ("The Devil's Cookbook") for far too long. I got a few nice comments at work today and it brought back a passion to finally finish the project. It will still take awhile to get it all done but I'm re-commited to getting there.

My 30 favorite Star Wars Characters

2010-05-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

I saw a post by Samurai Frog on his blog "Electronic Cerebrectomy" where he listed his 30 favorite Star Wars characters. You can see his list here:

Samurai Frog's 30 Fav's

That got me interested in drawing my own top 30 list, so here it is...

Viking Food

2010-04-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

I worked in the story department on "How to Train Your Dragon" but got asked at 1 stage of production to come up with some ideas for what the Vikings would eat around the campfire. I'm proud to say that my Chicken Carcass made it to the final film! I know every one raves about the flying scenes and the Hiccup/Toothless relationship but I'm pretty sure that the movie is at 98% positive reviews due to the shot of Gobber eating this delicious looking bird!

How to Train Your Dragon comes out March 26th!

2010-03-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the lack of posts, (Yes, Super Villain, I saw your comment. ;) Now that "How to Train Your Dragon" is coming out, (March 26th!) I should have more stuff that I can actually show. I'll try and get some more updates on "Seaweed and the Devil's Cookbook" for those that are interested as well.

80's Movie Villain Cocktail Party

2009-11-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a piece I did for the "Hey You Guys! Charity event December 5th at the Rialto Theater in Pasadena. Josh Pruett, (a killer story artist at DreamWorks) is putting the event together and it looks like it's going to be awesome. The theme is movies that inspired you as a kid, and they'll be screening a print of Ghostbusters! The art will all be auctioned off for Donors Choose.org This will go towards supplying needy classrooms with art supplies. You can go to the official site by clicking the link below. There will also be an opportunity to bid online if you can't make it to the event.

Hey You Guys! Charity Event

Two Awesome New Links!

2009-09-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Check out these awesome new blogs from my buddies Aurian Redson and Bob Boyle!

Bob is the creator of "Ying Yang Yo" and "Wow! Wow! Wubbsy!" His blog the Doodle Dorks is a group project with his friends David Fremont and Brad Mossman. Funny, Creative, and awesome stuff!

Doodle Dorks

Aurian is a story artist at Disney Feature Animation. He also illustrated the Book, "Bolt, One Ridonculous Adventure." Also, he owns a Star Wars Pinball machine so that makes him even cooler.

Aurian Redson

Black Sabbath

2009-09-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

I love Black Sabbath.

Fosters wins an Emmy!

2009-09-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

Big Congrats to Craig, Lauren, and all the amazing talent who worked on the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode: "Destination Imagination" for winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Show over 1 Hour! I was lucky enough to get to do some character designs and storyboarded a segment of the show. Here's a sample:

Passion for Life by Silver

2009-08-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

My good buddy Stephen Silver, the king of sketchbook self publishing, has just released another masterpiece. "Passion for Life" is 200 pages of life drawings and inspirational quotes that is so glorious it can scarcely be described with the written word. Suffice to say I can only imagine the halls of Heaven to be lined with such breathtaking art. Buy it here...

PASSION FOR LIFE

Foster's Designs

2009-08-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't had much to post recently. Here's some old designs from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Seaweed goes to Comic Con!

2009-07-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

I'll be selling and signing Seaweed at Tina Price's Creative Talent Network Booth #5022 on Thursday from 1 to 3. (It's right next to Stuart NG's booth of awesomeness!) Hope to see you there!

Space Rhino and the Oxpecker Squad

2009-06-15T02:03:00.000-07:00

Seaweed goes to London!

2009-06-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

If you're in the United Kingdom and you've been looking to purchase my book "Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew" but didn't want to pay the hefty amount for overseas shipping you're in luck! GOSH Comics located at 39 Great Russell St in London has copies in stock. All the copies I sent have been signed and each has a small sketch of Poisson. You can check out their blog at this address:

GOSH Comics

Lion, Tiger, and a Bear

2009-06-04T19:58:00.001-07:00

Some designs from the "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" episode: "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun that He's Not Invited To".

Macbeth

2009-05-28T01:41:00.001-07:00

Watercolor and Ink on watercolor paper. This isn't for work of any sort, I did this one just for fun.

Hansel and Gretel doodles

2009-05-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Bunny

2009-05-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a model I drew of the bunny that Bloo has a break dance fight with in the new "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" episode "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun that He's Not Invited To". Even though "Foster's" is done you can still get a fix of Craig McCraken brilliance by going and purchasing his "Wander Over Yonder" book at this link:

Craig McCracken's "Wander Over Yonder"

The ideas and drawings in this book showcase Craig's drawing skill and imagination in a way that must be seen to be believed! Don't wait too long though, cause they're almost gone!

Wolverine

2009-05-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

This is how I felt after seeing this steaming pile of a film. I know the reviews were bad and I didn't expect much, but WOW! Seriously, they've got Wolverine getting airsick on a plane as it descends while a bunch of cream puff mutants laugh at him and ask if he "needs a bucket?" This ragtag group of mutants have highly imaginative powers that range from being good at shooting guns, being good at wielding a sword, to having the power to turn on a light bulb with your mind! Now I'm going to sit down with a pile of old Byrne/Claremont X-Men comics to remind me how great this character can be.

The White Library

2009-05-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a preview page from "Seaweed and the Devil's Cookbook". (Hopefully it will be ready for the San Diego Comic Con 2011!) It shows the interior to the White Library and the first look at the Basilisk that guards the main hall. Sometimes Basilisks are portrayed as large snakes but I prefer the image of a dragon body with a roosters head. Of course he spits rocks and if you look directly into his eyes you'll turn to stone.

L.A. Times Festival of Books

2009-04-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Just a blurb to let you know that I'll be at booth 750 at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend signing my book "Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew". Hope to see you there!

A Tour of my Studio

2009-04-05T15:28:00.001-07:00

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Storyboard (part 1)

2009-03-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

Here's the first part of a board I did for the Foster's special, "Destination Imagination". The gang gets trapped in a toy box that's actually an imaginary friend.

I'll post the rest some other time.

Wondercon

2009-02-25T22:36:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to let you know I'll be at Wondercon this weekend signing my book "Seaweed and a Cure for Mildew". I'll be at booth SP08. Hope to see you there.

Powerpuff Girl Wacky Racers

2009-02-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

I suck at drawing props, but when Craig McCracken asked me to come up with some concepts for his new Powerpuff Girl 10th Anniversary Special: "Powerpuff Girls Rule!", I jumped at the opportunity. Craig gave me a list of the basic ideas for the cars and wanted me to keep them similar to the old "Wacky Races" cartoon. I thought it would be fun to think of it as if the characters had found the old cars in a Hanna Barbara junk yard and built their own versions. Hopefully Craig will post his amazing storyboards for this special which he drew himself. They are stunning!

Him's "No-Stopper Chopper"

Fuzzy Lumpkin's "Barrel Roller"

The Powerpuff Girl's "Heart Attack"

The Gang Green's "Gang Green Machine"

Mojo Jojo's "Cranky Tanky"

Princess's "Money Burner"

Randy the Ram "The Wrestler"

2009-01-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

So before Christmas my buddy and fellow board artist, John Puglisi, asked if I wanted to go to a free screening of "The Wrestler". Turns out it was the actual premier of the film in Beverly Hills! I just about barfed with glee when Rowdy Roddy Piper, Brutus the Barber Beeefcake, Greg the Hammer Valentine, and even Nature Boy Rick Flair were introduced before the screening. I could name drop all night but the highlight was seeing Slash chilling by the free bar. To prove my story here's a photo of the films director Darren Aronofsky and Jared Leto at the after party. You can clearly see my gut on the right side of the photo. I also did a quick drawing of Randy the Ram in case anyone wants to make an animated version of the film ala "Hulk Hogan's Rock-n-Wrestling." Just kidding. OK... No I'm not.

Imaginary Friend

2009-01-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I put a post up. I don't have much time to put up something big, but I found this image of a miscellaneous Friend from "Foster's" to throw up for the time being. Speaking of "Foster's" I got nominated for another Annie Award this year. This is my 6th nomination and 5th straight year, (although I haven't won yet.) The nomination is for character design on the episode "Mondo Coco" which you can see the designs for below on the "Emmy" post.

Wonder Woman Day

2008-10-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Andy Mangels has put together a charity event benefiting domestic violence shelters in the Portland and New Jersey areas. The event is called Wonder Woman Day and it's now in its third year. There's some outstanding art being auctioned off and you can check it all out at this link:

WONDER WOMAN DAY 3

Here's my entry:

1st Look at "Seaweed and the Devil's Cookbook"

2008-09-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

The conclusion to

Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew

is fully drawn and ready to be inked and colored. I can't say for sure yet how long this will take but I thought I'd show one of the blue line pages just for fun.

I've gotten some amazing reviews for "The Cure for Mildew" including this one by Jerry Beck on Cartoon Brew:

Cartoon Brew

And this one by Moriarty on Ain't it Cool News:

Ain't it Cool News

I won an EMMY!

2008-08-27T01:01:00.000-07:00

OMG! I won an Emmy for character design on Foster's! I'm hanging with some pretty good company as Craig McCracken and Shannon Tindle have also won Emmys in past years for their character designs on the show as well. I got lucky enough to come onto the show for the 5th and 6th seasons after the style had already been established by the likes of Craig, Shannon, Craig Kellman, Lynne Naylor, Shane Prigmore, Pete Oswald, Andy Bialk, and probably a billion others I'm forgetting. Here are some of the designs that got submitted for the show "Mondo Coco" that I won for. (The Yeti got posted already, but he was part of the bunch so here he is again.)

Dunders

2008-08-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you guys for buying so many books this past month! We've finally gotten caught up on orders so I have a second to post some more character designs from the book. I thought I'd share the designs for the Dunders, a mysterious group of Toads who live on the island of Fungi. Want to read more about them?

Then buy my book: SEAWEED and the CURE FOR MILDEW Today!

SEAWEED AND THE CURE FOR MILDEW NOW ON SALE!!!!!!!

2008-07-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

Finally after 6 years of work I can proudly announce the arrival of my first graphic novel: "Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew"!!!!! This is a no-holds-barred printing. 12 by 15 inches (30.5 x 38.1 cm), Hardcover, Full Color, 64 page, Cloth Spine, Extravaganza. The paper is of such weight and quality that each book weighs 3 pounds (1.4 kgs).

I've included 24 pages of rough drawings, deleted pages, character designs and development, as well as notes on the creation of the story, the characters, how I ink, and how I laid out the pages. The "Making of" section is printed on a rougher style paper than the actual graphic novel giving the feel of an entirely separate book.

All this for only $29.95 - and on top of that, each book ordered through my website will also include a quick sketch and a signature. All orders from outside the U.S.A. are accepted as well.

www.saltysugar.com

The story revolves around Seaweed, a pelican pirate who gets caught up helping a mysterious old bat named Mildew find a legendary book known as "The Devil's Cookbook". This book reputedly holds the cure for all illness and the secret to eternal life.

For those interested in obtaining a "first printing", I strongly suggest you don't wait too long to get your order in. The past few weeks have been crazy with requests to hold books and pre-order copies, in the event of a sell-out. For those going to the San Diego Comic Con, although I won't have my own booth, I will be at Stuart NG's, (Booth # 5012) on Sunday the 27th from 2 to 4pm to sign copies. Stuart will have a limited supply on hand during the Con as well.

To all of you who have been SO supportive of this book and the lengthy process it took to create it I thank you for your patience and hope it will be rewarded when you receive your copy!

Buy it now at:

www.saltysugar.com

"Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew" Cover

2008-06-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

"Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew" is finally done and the bulk load of copies should be arriving around July 10th! The book measures in at a whopping 12 x 15 inches!!! It's hard cover, full-color, 64 pages- (of which 24 are development, rough sketches, and notes on the making of the book). The re-launch of my web-site: saltysugar.com will take place in the next few weeks where you'll be able to preview the book and order it through Paypal. I'll let you all know when it's up and running but for now here's the cover!

Also for those attending the San Diego Comic Con, Stuart NG will be carrying a limited number of the books. I'm also in talks with him to do a book signing and I'll let you know more about that as the details are finalized.

Merlyn

2008-06-08T10:36:00.001-07:00

Here's a take on "Merlyn" from "The Once and Future King" I did for Steven Gettis's awesome website:

Digital Medusa

Steven describes the site as "a personal collection of various artists interpreting their favorite literary figure/author/character..." And WOW! you should see some of the artists that have contributed! Alex Toth, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bruce Timm, JOHN BUSCEMA!!!!, Mike Mignola, and one of my favorite artists, Walt Simonson drew an amazing version of J.R.R. Tolkien and Michael Moorcock! There too many great artists to list them all, but go check it out and enjoy the "awesomeness" that Steven has put together!

No more "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends".

2008-05-31T19:24:00.000-07:00

All fun jobs must come to an end. Now that I've wrapped on the final episode of "Foster's" (the show is ending after 6 seasons), it's time to move on to my next gig... and it's a whopper! I got lucky enough to land a sweet job as a storyboard artist at Dreamworks! I started a few weeks ago, hence the lack of posts, and it's already turning out to be a great place to work. I'm working under head of story Dave Pimentel on the upcoming movie "How to Train Your Dragon" which is pretty much like a dream project for me! I won't be able to show any work for this for quite awhile but I'll have plenty of news soon about my book, "Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew". Exciting times!!!

Studies and doodles

2008-04-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a page of some random head studies and doodles I kept going while I finished a story board for "Foster's". They were all drawn on my Cintiq using Sketchbook Pro. There's no real rhyme or reason to any of them just quickies to break up the day. Some are based from photographs, others were paused screen shots from DVDs I was watching.

Yeti

2008-04-11T14:59:00.001-07:00

@#$%**!! YAH!!!

2008-03-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Great news ya'll! Today, (After 6 years of work,) I sent the files to be printed for my first graphic novel, "Seaweed and A Cure for Mildew"! To celebrate I'm posting a compilation of all the cartoon curse words that appear in the book. The book is going to be HUGE!! I'm talking 12" x 15", full - color, hard cover with a cloth spine. It's got 40 pages of story and 24 pages of sketches, designs and development all printed on insanely heavy paper stock! I've gotten a tremendous amount questions about the release date for the book so it's awesome that I can finally respond with an answer. The books should all be printed and in my hands by this June! I'll have info posted as soon as a hard date is available and info on how you can buy one. In the mean time I hope you have fun reading these words out loud!

"Let Your Hare Down" designs

2008-03-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

A new episode of "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" aired last night so I thought I'd show you some designs.

Here's a bull that Bloo rides. I tried to make him more of an American "bull-riding" steer and not the standard "Bully for Bugs" Spanish Black bull. He ended up being black in the final show anyway.

Here's a "Ben Franklin" action figure that Craig told me to make look like a "He-Man" style figure. Of course I had a "Merman" figure sitting on my drawing desk at home so I could try and get some authenticity. I also have "Trapjaw" but I didn't use him. Of course true He-Man aficionados will note the extra joints and rivets in Ben's arms but I thought it helped sell the image as a figure and not an actual character. Also I tried to add a slight discoloring to the arms as if it were made from different plastic then the chest. Obviously I spent too much time thinking about this.

Here's a burro that I don't think made it into the show.

And finally a crowd of angry Mexicans who run through a scene almost faster than the human eye can see.

Book Review

2008-03-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

Not that

Stephen Silver

needs my help to promote anything for him, but I felt compelled after reading his latest book, entitled "Life" to share my admiration for said project. Beautiful life drawings and the often overlooked transition to a finished cartoon adorn this well crafted book. I'd also like to add that it smells really good, (the way all art books should.) If your thinking of buying it I'd suggest you hop to it cause he printed a surprisingly short run. Here's a drawing I did of Silver as a publishing "FAT CAT" after he published his first book, "The Art of Silver."

DRAGON

2008-02-22T14:29:00.001-08:00

Old Giraffes

2008-02-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

I've been swamped doing art that I won't be able to post for awhile and since I don't have anything new I thought I'd at least throw up this old page of giraffe drawings. These are marker and pencil on animation paper.

Captain Mayflower and some Foster's People

2008-01-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

I've been swamped recently with a few fun projects but of course I won't be able to post anything for quite some time. In the mean time I dug up some drawings from "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends".

Captain Mayflower was just a random Friend in the house. I'm going to try and reuse him sometime in Season 6.

Here's just a sampling of people on the show. The Security Guards never got used.

These were illustrations in a pattern book from the episode, "Say it Isn't Sew."

Annie Nomination #5!

2007-12-10T21:31:00.000-08:00

Hey all! I've been nominated for an Annie Award for the 4th year in a row and for my 5th time! (Although I haven't won one yet.) I got real lucky to have guys like Butch Hartman and Bob Boyle teach me about storyboarding and I had one of the best times of my life working on Danny Phantom. Here's the Cold Open to the board I'm nominated for.

Bird Migration

2007-11-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Elephant Redcoat

2007-10-23T00:43:00.000-07:00

My friend Anna is having a baby boy, (Henry). She asked a bunch of her friends to draw an elephant for the nusery and here's what I drew.

Fun on "Fosters"

2007-10-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a few designs from different episodes of "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" that have already aired.

Bloo on a Tiger Rug

A random imaginary friend I named "Eyeborg", and a butterfly. (These were drawn on my Cintiq in Sketchbook Pro.)

Here's a "One Man Band friend" who got cut from the episode, "Shlock Star". I based the trumpet drawing from one of Tom Oreb's designs.

And lastly a boombox friend named "Boomer". His tapedeck served as his mouth as it flapped open and closed.

He - Pumpkin!

2007-10-05T00:52:00.000-07:00

This model sheet of He-Pumpkin is my entry into Taylor White's group Halloween show, "October Shadows 2." The show is a collection of Halloween themed art by some amazing artists and will be on display at the private studio of 6 time Academy Award winner Rick Baker. The show runs from Oct. 13th through November 1st and do to the location, you need to make an appointment to see it if your interested. All the info can be found at Creature Features

The final piece is 15"x20" done in ink and marker on watercolor paper and will be for sale at the show and on the Creature Features website starting at 7:00pm p.s.t. on Oct 13th.

Here's the rough drawings if you want to see them.

Witch Concepts

2007-09-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

These were personal designs I did for a project I was working on with Shannon and Shane. We just wanted to have some development fun outside of work and studio restrictions but it ended up being too time consuming so we quit. These were done with marker (Copic Sketch) and pencil.

Vortex

2007-09-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted any Danny Phantom artwork and in honor of the airing of the final episode, "Phantom Planet" I dug out some board panels and my original design for "Vortex" the weather ghost and made a model sheet out of them. I spent a lot of time trying to improve my "hand" drawings with these poses so I turned to the trusty mirror I keep by my desk in hopes of getting some more dynamic and unique hand gestures.

Here are some more random panels from my board that didn't really fit into the model sheet I was making.

One of the best parts about boarding is coming up with fun little visual moments not in the script. I thought this moment where Danny meets Vortex for the first time was worth posting. I had created a huge cloud skull where Vortex lived and here is how he came out.

PAGE 24

2007-08-27T23:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much progress from my book in awile so here's page 24 from rough to color, (minus any dialog.)

Bubo Fett

2007-08-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

12 Angry Men doodles

2007-08-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

I'm hard at work storyboarding on a new "PowerPuff Girls" TV special, but not too hard to do a few doodles while I'm working. I had "12 Angry Men" on the TV and paused it a few times to do a couple drawings.

Cinderella 2, "Dreams Come True?"

2007-08-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

OK, I haven't always gotten to work on really cool projects like "Foster's" or "Danny Phantom." Sometimes you gotta pay the bills and work on a project that you don't have as much enthusiasm for. Such was the case on Cinderella 2. Being assigned the task of re-designing a classic character like Anastasia so as to make her look more "attractive" was fairly reprehensible, but I tried to do the best I could, mainly cause I was working with some really cool and talented artists. The story had something to do with her finding her "inner-beauty" so of course she needed to look hot, (or hot-er) on the outside, right??? Ugh. Anyhow, here's some drawings of her attempting to smile which she only finally succeeds in doing when she falls in love. I also threw in a model sheet of a palace cat named "Pom Pom" that had an affair with Lucifer. I made some great friends and learned a lot from some very talented artists at Disney TV, and although I'm glad we won't see more of these stupid ideas, (at least as video sequels,) I'm hoping that there will be some original direct to video content that showcases the great talent working there in a better fashion.

Foster's Swap meet crowd

2007-07-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

Here's some background characters for "the Buck Swaps Here" show. Give it a click if you wana see it larger!

These don't belong to Disney.

2007-07-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

These Aida designs have been surfacing around as development art for a scraped Disney Feature production of Aida but it aint so. This was nothing more than a class assignment given out by Frank Terry when I was at Cal Arts back in 1996. (A couple of the characters were redrawn a few years later but the basic designs remained the same.) Frank brought in a newspaper clipping that Disney and Elton John were going to do an animated musical of Aida and our assignment was to create a line up of the main characters and give them all Disney style sidekicks. We then had the great Chen-Yi Chang come to evaluate the work which was pretty cool. In any case I posted them on my on-line portfolio and somehow they were mistaken for actual Disney development art.

The McSamurai/Hostess War (page 6)

2007-07-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

The crew of "Foster's" is having a group art show at Cartoon Network this Tuesday the 10th. The theme is "Copyright Infringement." Here's my entry. Click on it if you want to see it bigger or read it.

"Dunder Chief" Rejects

2007-06-21T00:37:00.000-07:00

There's a mysterious character in my graphic novel, "Seaweed" called "The Dunder Chief." The name comes from the AC/DC song, "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap." As a kid I didn't understand the lyrics and thought Brian Johnson was singing "Dirty Deeds and the Dunder Chief." (I hope that doesn't ruin a great song for anyone.) When the time came for thinking up a name I heard the song again and walla. I'm not ready to show the final version of the character, but here are some rough ideas and reject concepts that didn't make the cut. For those interested, I'm now about half way done with inking and coloring the 64 page book.

Some "Crash Nebula" leftovers

2007-05-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff I found in my "Crash Nebula" folder. ("Crash" was a pilot created by Butch Hartman and Steve Marmel. It didn't get picked up as a series but still airs as a "Fairly Odd Parents" episode.) These are some miscellaneous alien school kids. I always wanted to limit the alien races to just a few and then vary the shapes and sex of each race. I thought it would be a little easier to look at and create a more believable universe, (like Star Trek) but was outvoted by everyone I think.

This next page is of the headmistress of the school, named "Galaxandra". Butch and Steve wanted her to look like those tall white cloning aliens in Star Wars Episode2, (the worst of all 6 movies in my opinion.) I tried to add a butterfly approach to help distinguish her a little. There's a construction sheet as well. I don't know how much good info is on it, but I do like the fact that her fingers are longer than her palm. I'm going to try and remember to keep doing that.

Here's an attempt to have the overseas studio use a specific clean up line for the animation. Yeah Right! Wow was I naive! Of course all the lines had a normal even weight. And in hindsight who could blame them. It was pretty ridiculous to expect them to draw such time consuming lines on a TV schedule. Actually I'm not even sure these got sent, as the production staff was probably laughing at me for overkill! Ha! Ha! Anyhow, it's fun to look back on and remember how enthusiastic the small crew we had was on that pilot. May all focus test groups die!

Some "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" Designs

2007-05-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a hodge podge of designs from the episode, "Cheese A GoGo" which is now showing on Cartoon Network. I didn't get to design any new friends for this episode, mostly just humans and special poses.

Dilophosaurus

2007-05-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Dilophosaurus makes a beautiful, yet deadly addition to my blog. :)

Dame Judi Stench

2007-04-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

So here was the character I was going to enter in the Fist-A-Cuffs tournament. Unfortunatley there's a rule against having your drawing be a "parody", so poor Judi Stench can't play.

Fist-A-Cuffs!!!!!!

2007-04-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't already been to it, Sam Hiti has the coolest blog ever :

Fist-A-Cuffs

The idea is that artists create fighters to battle each other in a round robin tournament. Winners are decided by votes in the comments section. Right now the tag team championship match has started and any one with a blog profile can vote on the winner. The next round of action will be starting soon! Sam has a post about how to submit your character for the next tournament, so if your as addicted as I am get envolved! The characters in this championship match were created by:

Headless Spectre Records

2007-04-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the logo I did for Doktor Viktor Von Kreep's "Headless Spectre Record" company. He's gonna print a black and white version as a T-shirt in the near future. I'll put up a post and a link when he starts selling them. You can visit the Dok's blogs at:

Headless Spectre Radio

Bar in a Boat

2007-03-29T01:41:00.000-07:00

Here's another panel from my up-coming book "Seaweed." This is the interior of "the Salty Sugar", (Seaweed's boat). Seaweed had no use for cabins on board so he replaced them with a full bar complete with a trusty bar tender, "Gimlet." As well as an obvious Disneyland tribute there's a small homage to the great Herge from my favorite "Tintin" story.

Horse Studies

2007-03-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

I'm starting a t-shirt design that will only be printed in one color. Part of the design involves a horse so I started doing some studies to help get a style and some sense of the proportions I want. Here are some early attempts. I've never liked my horse drawings so I really wanted to get one I felt was unique but still based from the real thing. I looked at photos on "google images" to get some understanding of what a horse looks like. I don't want it to look realistic but I also don't want it to look like my distortions were random chances which so many designs now look like to me. I'll post more attempts as I study more. Neigh.

Shannon & Shane's assignment

2007-03-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

Super designers Shannon Tindle & Shane Prigmore were doing a guest lecture at Cal Arts and they asked me if I would participate in the assignment. They asked the class to create Scrooge, Jacob Marley, and Tiny Tim from "A Christmas Carol." Here's my version. This would definately be the worst performance of the story ever! HA!HA!

Random Doodles 2

2007-02-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

Here's some more random doodles all drawn on my Cintiq. Just for fun.

Goin' Back to Cali!

2007-02-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

Actually, I'm already there, and I love being back! Sunny and 70 beats 40's and clamy any day!

More Phantom Title Cards

2007-01-25T00:35:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! On top of being a board artist and character designer on Danny Phantom, I also got the opportunity to design all the title cards for the show. One of my favorite parts of the job was designing the logo for each episode. I can't take credit for the brilliant coloring, however. I would only submit the line drawing and that would be colored by Honore Gauthier, George Taylor, Bob Boyle, and George Goodchild. (I think these were all colored by George Taylor.) Another great color artist on the show was Kaz Aizawa who now has a blog. Click on his name to see his stuff.

Another Page Progression

2007-01-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while due to being busy with Foster's and with buying a house in Pasadena. My wife and I will be moving back to California in one month! Thank God! One year in Portland was enough for me. Here's another page progression from my comic which will never be finished.

Viking Family

2006-12-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here's some incidental characters from a short I was doing some work for at Disney TV. The project got cancelled last summer, but I thought I'd dig these out and post 'em anyway. I did a ton of designs for this that I'll post some other time. As always click on the image if you want to see it bigger.

Some Foster's Work

2006-11-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some held images done for the episode "Make Believe It Or Not". Each of the Foster's characters imagine themselves as something, and a quick still shot was shown on the screen. Craig McCracken wanted them each in a different style from the show.
Manga Wilt as an Evil Robot Overlord, Coco as a T-Rex (Geof Darrow Style), Ed as a Royal baker (Mary Blair Style) This didn't get used and got changed to a Mario Brothers style.), also an image of Goo (Lisa Frank Style) riding Coco. The board for this episode was done by the very talented Kelsey Mann .

More Mildew

2006-11-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

I'm inkin' and colorin' like mad whenever I get a moments break from "Foster's". I'm tryin' not to show too much, or too many new characters, so here's more of Mildew the bat.

Diff

2006-11-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another character from the failed "Crash Nebula" series. Diff was a gelatinous shape changing alien who befriended Crash at the celestial Academy. I did a ton of concepts until we reached a design that Butch was happy with.

Robert the Blooce

2006-10-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Working on "Foster's" has been going great!! But not so great that I won't take a week off to go to Scotland. I'll be driving around looking at old castles and ruined abbeys as well as staying in Borthwick Castle in the Red room (which is supposed to be haunted!) I'll drink a pint or two for every one of you!! I promise!!

p.s. this drawing was just for fun and wasn't actually work on the show, in case you were wondering.

"Urban Jungle" storyboard

2006-10-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any storyboards for awile so here's a segment for a Danny Phantom episode that recently aired entitled "Urban Jungle." Danny fights a plant ghost, named Undergrowth and develops a freezing power based off of a ghosts ability to send chills up your spine. I didn't bother including the dialog or direction cause it just gets to crazy to post this much. As always click on the pages if you want to see them bigger.

Frostbite

2006-10-12T01:39:00.000-07:00

Here's another Danny Phantom character I designed named Frostbite. The script had him described as an abominable snowman/wampa type creature. I tried to think of something to distance him a bit from every other snow creature we've seen so I came up with the frozen arm. I don't know if it makes much sense, but I thought it looked cool. (no pun intended!) I added a page of some concepts I originally showed to Butch as well.

Sam as a Plant Girl

2006-10-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Here's some designs for Sam when she she gets turned into a plant girl in the Danny Phantom episode "Urban Jungle". The first design wasn't used.

Gila Bandito and La Cuckaracha

2006-10-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a design drawn just for the heck of it. I did it in Sketchbook pro on my Cintiq.

Page 11 in color

2006-09-29T03:01:00.000-07:00

A couple posts back I put up the roughs and final ink to this image of Seaweed's boat the "Salty Sugar." Here's the color version in context with the rest of the page.

Shane Prigmore is On-Line!

2006-09-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

Everyone has got to check out the blog of Shane Prigmore. One of the best draftsman I know and a swell guy to boot! Just click on the link below.

Shane Prigmore

Blowhorn and Bratallica

2006-09-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple more characters done way back in 1999 for my comic "Seaweed." Blowhorn was a stuffy English hunter, who was hired to hunt down Seaweed and Poisson but also had to keep on eye on his daughter, Bratallica, whom he had visitation rights for that weekend. Any how the story changed quite a bit during rewrites and in the end these two didn't survive to make it in the final draft.

random doodles

2006-08-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

I was bored and I started a page of doodles all drawn on my Cintiq.

Loch Ness Monster

2006-08-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a drawing I did for my friend Alex Hirsch, who worked this summer at Laika but is heading back to Cal Arts for his Senior year. I'll be leaving Laika as well in two weeks to take on a new job at Cartoon Network as the design supervisor on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends as it goes into it's 5th season.

Rogue's Gallery

2006-08-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a rough line up of incidental characters in the bar at the opening of my comic "Seaweed". I designed a brand of cigarettes but they never got used, maybe they'll show up in the second book.

The Salty Sugar

2006-08-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a panel from my comic of Seaweed's boat the "Salty Sugar". I start with a rough, do a tight pencil in blue, erase the hell out of the tight pencil, and then ink it using Pitt artist pens. I use a combo of the superfine size, the brush size, and some fine detail with the Micro 005 pen. I'll do the color in photoshop but I'm not at that stage yet. The boats parked at Dock #94 for all you fellow nerds out there!

K-Swiss's New Spokes Man

2006-07-31T16:16:00.000-07:00

According to Shannon Tindle, Storm Shadow is now wearing fly K-Swiss sneakers, as witnessed at the Con. That punk, Snake Eyes is gonna get a logo imprinted on his grill!

Crash Nebula Posters

2006-07-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here's two different posters I did back when Crash was in development at Nickelodeon. They were only done to help start some buzz and sell the show. I tried my hand at creating some logos which is always fun. We ended up using the upper-most right one on the title-card for the episode.

Phantom Designs

2006-07-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some designs done to give the storyboard artists something to work from. I always enjoyed adding some color, but it was never really followed. These are all pencil and marker on animation paper. The design for Technus 3.0 made it all the way through the board pitch for the episode, "Identity Crisis" but then it was realized that the design didn't work for what needed to happen in the story. Whoops, should have read the script I guess.

Bug Trooper

2006-07-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the Bug Trooper from Crash Nebula.

Developing Seaweed

2006-06-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a collection of development for the main and title character; "Seaweed." The image of him and Poisson in the upper left corner of page one, (with the cigar) was the first image drawn back in 1998 I think. The basic elements remained the same but getting his proportions to work took some work. It always takes me a lot of drawings and struggle to get anything to work right, and it always pisses me off when I see great artists who magically make beautiful drawings just flow out of their pencils. I included a page of some stills from the comic so you can see where he ended up finally.

inking continues

2006-06-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

After a long period of working on too many freelance jobs I finally returned to inking my fully drawn, 64 page comic, "Seaweed." Here's half of page 13 along with the final blue pencil I inked on. I'll publish all the blue lines and thumbnails/studies in a book after I put out the full color version. Most of my friends who have seen the work would rather see the rough blue version, but I've always deamed of putting out a more professional full color comic, so I want to accomplish that first.

pirate mom

2006-06-17T10:49:00.000-07:00