Artsy.net: A Cool New Site to See

Back in 2009, whilst at the Academy of Art University, one of my assignments was a replication of a Rembrandt painting (above). Thanks to the amazing omnipresence of The Internet, I was recently contacted by the people over at Artsy.net who found my blog and figured I and my followers might enjoy their website. For those like myself who are unaware of what Artsy is, Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. Artsy's Rembrandt van Rijn page provides visitors with Rembrandt's bio, over 250 of his works, exclusive articles, and up-to-date Rembrandt exhibition listings.

This is a very cool website that I will continue to explore in the future. Needless to say, I am a firm believer in the power of The Arts and of art study, particularly the Greats of the past. And Rembrandt was most certainly a Great. Go explore the site for yourself, and feel free to leave a comment or two linking to any cool stuff you find there!

And, for my followers from down under, The Art Gallery of New South Wales is set to open an exhibit on November 11, 2017 titled Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum. Sounds like quite the exhibit, so be sure to check it out and drop me a line about how it is.

My First Episode of Elena of Avalor Premiered!

I am very pleased to share that my first episode of Disney's Elena of Avalor aired today on Disney Channel!

I began working on the show as a storyboard artist last July at the start of the second season. My first episode was actually the second of the season, and my section of it was actually split between the opening and closing of the show. The production team on Elena consists of two episodic directors (Nate Chew and Robb Pratt) who rotate working with three story artist teams, each consisting of three storyboard artists. I was very lucky to be on a truly fantastic team with Jules Aguimatang and Arielle Yett, both of whom picked up a lot of my slack. Each director also has their own revisionist, and all episodes are overseen by Disney veteran director Elliot Bour for animation and series-creator Craig Gerber for story and overall direction.

Shows at Disney Television Animation are all drawn digitally on Cintiqs using ToonBoom Storyboard Pro, which was a new program for me to fully utilize (outside of some dabbling at AAU), so there was a definite learning curve on the first episode. Because of that and to be sure to meet the six-week production schedule for boards, I decided to thumbnail out the entire episode on paper first, then deal with the technology.

I am happy to share with you, for educational purposes, those very thumbnail pages for episode 202 of Elena of Avalor, Royal Rivalry...

And here are some of my very first drawings of Elena, trying to grasp how I would handle the character in my final storyboards.

Hopefully that gives a bit of insight into the process of making Elena! If you've seen the episode, please let me know what you thought in the comments below. I'll post more Elena stuff as The Mouse will allow.

More NERDI Sketches

A small collection of sketches for the ongoing NERDI comic series I occasionally work on. Bits and pieces come to me here and there over the years. It's a slow-moving process, but it keeps chugging along and getting better. When the time is right, it's going to be a great project. Stay tuned..

Smurfs: The Lost Village available to own!

I'm a bit late with posting about this, but Smurfs: The Lost Village is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, & Digital Download! Included as a Bonus Feature, under the Deleted Scenes, is an extended version of the Brainy's Experiment sequence I worked on many times over. Very honored to have my storyboards included for all the world to see!

To celebrate, here's an "Adult Coloring Book" page for all to enjoy:

Farewell Avalor

After a fantastic year at Disney Television Animation working on the hit show Elena of Avalor, I have hopped on my jacquin and flown off into the sunset. Lots of great folks working there who will continue to make the best kids show on television!

Look for posts about the episodes I worked on in the months ahead. Exciting new things coming soon; stay tuned!

Wanderlust

Wanderlust [won-der-luhst]: (n)
     1. a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world.
     2. a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about.

Stumbled across this word awhile back, and it got me thinking about an old character of mine...

RETAILiation Comic Book #1, Pt. 3

As previously chronicled, after college I revisited my RETAILiation characters, this time in comic book form. It was never completely finished, so you'll see pages in various stages of the process, from totally rough to cleaned-up backgrounds to finished black and whites. With over a decade of retail experience myself, I have a lot of stories left to tell in this world. Perhaps some day I shall return to this well, but until then I am happy to share this taste with you.

For the first time ever, I present to you the final pages of RETAILiation, Issue 1, Pages 15-22...

RETAILiation Comic Book #1, Pt. 2

As previously chronicled, after college I revisited my RETAILiation characters, this time in comic book form. It was never completely finished, so you'll see pages in various stages of the process, from totally rough to cleaned-up backgrounds to finished black and whites. With over a decade of retail experience myself, I have a lot of stories left to tell in this world. Perhaps some day I shall return to this well, but until then, I am happy to share this taste with you.

For the first time ever, I present to you RETAILiation, Issue 1, Pages 8-14...

A Couple of Elves

Who says elves aren't in season this time of year? We're half way to Christmas already!

RETAILiation Comic Book #1, Pt. 1

As previously chronicled, after college I revisited my RETAILiation characters, this time in comic book form. It was never completely finished, so you'll see pages in various stages of the process, from totally rough to cleaned-up backgrounds to finished black and whites. With over a decade of retail experience myself, I have a lot of stories left to tell in this world. Perhaps some day I shall return to this well, but until then I am happy to share this taste with you.

For the first time ever, I present to you RETAILiation, Issue 1, Pages 1-7...

Noah's Ark

Awhile back, I was playing around with the idea of expanding my old Academy of Art illustration into a short story of some sort. The illustration (posted below and at this link) was based on the Biblical tale of Noah and his animal-filled Ark. I liked the idea that all the animals we consider extinct were just left behind when the floods came.

Then I realized that I had subconsciously lifted the idea from the Fantasia 2000 sequence with Donald Duck. So that was that.

But here are some new character design explorations:

And here's the original illustration from school way back in 2011:

RETAILiation Preview Comic

This post and a few more upcoming posts required some cobweb dusting. Back in grad school at The Academy of Art University, I developed RETAILiation, the story of three friends who all work retail jobs at the mall and the misadventures they have. Having a decade of retail experience myself, there was a lot of story content to draw from! For school, I developed the story as if it were a traditionally animated television show, and ended up with some character designs and a storyboard sequence (see original Post here). For me, it was barely scratching the surface.

After graduation I really wanted to continue the story of these three and the rich supporting cast I had developed in my head. So I attempted a comic book!

Well, first I tested the waters with a short, seven-page "preview comic". None of it was ever cleaned up, but I think it's still pretty clear what's going on. Enjoy!

Up next: the First Issue...