When beginning an illustration project, I usually start with a prompt of some sort. For this process, I’ll use my work with the well known nursery rhyme “Jack Be Nimble”. This project began as a exercise at an illustrator’s intensive with Kristen Nobles, art director at Candlewick Press, but I won’t go into that (if you get the chance, take her class!). Instead, I’ll share with you the steps in how I create my illustrations.
Time lapse animation of my process.
Check out THE art show of the year in LA this Friday (October 3rd) at the La Luz De Jesus Gallery! Based on the comic book parodies of Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig (by Tom Neely, Scot Nobles and Igloo Tornado) – Henry & Glenn Forever and Ever – the gallery will showcase great work by a variety of artists, including yours truly. Go check it out! I will also have giclée prints available at the show.
A Little Black Grimoire
My first children’s magazine illustration! The fine folks at Humpty Dumpty magazine hired me from a postcard I sent out. It’s out now!
The full illustration:
To brush up on my animation skills, I took a class in Drawing for Animation at Shoreline Community College. I have experience in animating for games, but they are very limited in scope since they are mostly repeating cycles due to keeping filesizes and the games small. Also, most animations I have created were animated by code, bits and pieces of art put together like a paper puppet. This class focused on full animation and the big project was to create a 30 second pencil test, which was quite the challenge. The class really helped me to refocus on how to animate and giving my animations more life. Additionally, I learned/relearned about certain animators that were inspiring, especially Grim Natwick and UPA animators.
Below are the model sheets and storyboard for “Crazy 8s”. I decided to animate a cereal commercial, inspired by those wacky characters from my childhood. I always thought the commercials were sometimes more interesting than the cartoons I watched.
Watch the movie below the cut!
Vintage Mattel Monkey-ola toy spotted as a prop in a boutique store.
