Animation for the RoomStore...

I recently had the pleasure of working with Mark Lambert from The Park Group on a couple of commercials for the RoomStore. Mark has a very impressive resume. He's worked on such films as Narnia; the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Polar Express - Hollowman - Stuart Little - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, just to name a few.

Now on first blush you might think yeah, big deal, a commercial for a furniture store. And yes I understand but this was the first time in something like 25 years since I've had the opportunity to work in animation.

 
The last time was back in the early eighties when I worked on an animated music video for The Alan Parson's Project for a song called Don't Answer Me. The studio that it was done through was Broadcast Arts, at the time they were located in D.C.

 Shortly after the completion of the video the studio moved to NYC and made the first season of Pee Wee's Playhouse. While working on the music video I had the supreme pleasure of working with Michael W. Kaluta, a comic book and fantasy artist of the highest caliber and huge hero of mine.

So yes, I was excited to be working in animation again however limited the animation had to be due to time and budget constraints. Luckily I was working with someone who's knowledge of the history and different techniques of animation is very deep. Mark wanted to create a visual sensibility that was somewhat along the lines of early Warner Brother's cartoons and being a big fan those old cartoons I was more than happy to oblige. Having said that we're well aware of the fact that the animation is very limited but again we did what we could given the time and budget restraints.

 I'm very happy with the end result and had a blast working with Mark and everyone else at
  The Park Group.

Obama's College Days

This was done for a book that will be coming out either this fall or next spring. I can't really say too much about it at this point other than the book isn't entirely about Obama. My understanding is there will only be one chapter that focuses on him. Oddly enough they had me do 2 illustrations for the chapter. One that deals with him as a child and this one that depicts him during his college years. What the client was after was a rather literal depiction of Obama living a rather austere, ascetic lifestyle, focusing intently on his studies.

                                               Sketch 1

In speaking with the writer he wanted to include as many of the books and historical figures as possible that contributed to forming Obama's views. He also wanted to have Obama's father somehow represented, a neglected distressed basketball hoop out of his window to represent him leaving behind his childhood and something to represent his Grandparents. The list was a bit unrealistic in it's length and had to be shortened considerably. As a consequence I wasn't very hopeful for a successful outcome for this piece. With everything that I had to shoe horn into this, it seemed to me there was no way this was going to be anything other than a clunky, awkward illustration.

                                               Sketch 2

Surprisingly enough we didn't have to go through too many revisions and compositionaly things worked out better than I expected.

                                     Finished inks

                                         Completed illustration

Chicken Run @ The Virginia Historical Society

This is the last of the 4 stories we did for the Virginia Historical Society's new exhibit, "An American Turning point:The Civil War in Virginia". This story has a decidely lighter and slightly humorous tone. One of the things I really enjoyed about this job was the variety of tone each story contained. One deals mostly with interpersonal conflicts, one with espionage, one with the brutality of war and this one shows a moment that could be seen as funny although it does involve the theft of some of "Grandma's poultry".

                                              rough pencils, page 2

Initially Bruce and I discussed approaching the story with a very obvious cartoon sensibility, along the lines of the old Warner Bros., M.G.M. and Hanna Barbera cartoons.  We especially applied this to the soldiers running with their feet not touching the ground and the use of big animated sound effects. At one point I mentioned how I couldn't believe the museum was letting us handle this in such an exaggerated fashion. To which Bruce replied something along the lines of "we'll see, it hasn't been approved just yet."

                                                tight pencils, page 2


As you can see in the revised pencils we did have to reign things in a little. This was for the Virginia Historical Society after all. Having said that they did allow us to keep the soldiers running through the fence with the planks exploding in a completely impossible manner.

                                     finishes, last panel, page 2

On this story I once again had the pleasure of working with Noah Hornstein. He assisted me with the initial application of the colors. He also was kind enough to point out a few glaring mistakes in the drawings and I'm grateful to him for keeping me from embarrassing myself, thanks Noah.

                                     finish, panel one, page one

                          Here is the story in it's finished form, enjoy.

Vortex @ The Virginia Historical Society

This was the one story of the four that was more typical in it's approach to the subject of war. While the previous 2 stories dealt more with the social displacement and strategies employed during a conflict, this one deals more directly with the frank brutality of the war itself.

Once again, Lorna Yarberry assisted me with the colors on this story and as usual she did a great job. I was a little concerned as to how she would respond to the panel with the amputated limbs on the front porch. Much to my surprise and relief she wasn't the least bit put off by it. In fact I think she enjoyed

working on that panel the most.

While working on this job it brought to mind a line of comics I read as a kid called Classics Illustrated. They were a line of comics that dealt more with  literary classics and unfortunately because of this they were quite a bit more buttoned down. They had more of an academic stiffness to them and as a kid I was reading comics more for their entertainment value and the inexpensive escape from reality they offered so yeah, I wasn't a big fan of the their line.

                                      Here' the story "Vortex" enjoy;

Spies Like Us @ The Virginia Historical Society

 

Detail 1.

Here's the second of four stories we did in comic book form for the new exhibit, "An American Turning Point, The Civil War In Virginia" at the Virginia Historical Society. It's titled "Spie Like Us"

                                                           Detail 2.

I'm hesitant to put it in the category of the "graphic novel" although that was the terminology used in the initial discussions, because the stories simply are not long enough to qualify as such. I guess "graphic novel" sounds more respectable than "comic book" just as once upon a time "popular music" sounded more legit than "rock and roll". If these stories were a 100 pages or longer, I would not have a problem with that designation but since they're not I'm calling them comics.

                                                          Detail 3.

The individual at The Virginia Historical Society primarily responsible for the stories is Andy Talkov. He was great to work with and he seemed to have more than just a surface familiarity with the graphic novel form or in this case, comic book form which proved to be a big plus.  

 

                                                            Detail 4.

I also want to mention my assistant on this story, I worked with Noah Hornstein. He is a soon to be graduate from VCU's Communication Design Program. He assisted me with the laying in of the flat colors and a much needed objective eye in some areas of the comic.

                                                             Detail 5.

                             Here is the story in full comic book form;

                                          Thanks for taking a look.

New comics work for the Virginia Historical Society

I spent most of this past fall working on another job with Bruce and Dixie Horntstein of Pyramid Studios. This was another museum job, this time for the Virginia Historical Society. It was for an exhibition commemorating the 150 year anniversary of the American Civil War. Even though our contribution was relatively small in relation to the overall size of the exhibit, it seemed quite large to me as I was working on it.

Our portion of the exhibit was designed to draw kids into the museum and hopefully spark their interest in the history of Virginia and the country. We were tasked with creating an 8 page, full color, interactive comic book. It consists of 4 stories, each one 2 pages in length. Each story is told from a different individuals perspective, both politically and geographically. They were designed so that by the end of the first page of each story the reader would be presented with a choice as to what would they do were they in that situation. At the bottom of the page there is a touch sensitive navigation bar where the reader would then be instructed to turn to the next page or return to the main menu.

Granted it's difficult to flesh out character, plot and story in the space of 2 pages but that was one of the challenges we were faced with.

Once again I had the luxury of working with asisstants who I'd like to give a shout out to. Lorna Yarberry laid in the the flat colors and then some on the "Invasion of Privacy" and "Vortex" stories. Noah Hornstein, Bruce and Dixie's son, did the same on "Spies Like Us" and "Chicken Run".

Here's the first story, "Invasion of Privacy", enjoy.

Game Time

Here are 3 more illustrations form the Louisiana Childrens Discovery Center. These were from the map that concentrated on New Orleans. We have the most obvious examples of what represents this area, the Super Bowl and the Saints recent championship win, street musicians and the Mardi Gras. Again my assistant, Lorna Yarberry was a great collaborator on these 3 illo.s.

               Detail of the Superdome and the Saints Superbowl win.

                          Detail New Orleans street jazz musicians.

                                      Detail of Madri Gras float.