This is too good...

Mark Evanier linked to this on his blog (a link to his blog is over to the right)...Make sure you click on the word "this"....

I laughed out loud when I saw this. I hope everyone else enjoys it also.

Back on track...

With all the fire surrounding the area (we're pretty safe- I think) I thought that one of these was extremely appropriate. Once again these are designs that were submitted for a particular project that the X-Men: Evolution crew was going to go onto. But for some reason the executive producers and Boyd couldn't seem to agree on the type of story to tell and for what age group. At least, this is what I think caused it to slip through our fingers. Oh, well....

An Honor...

An artist that I've met on-line, Euan Mactavish - also known as em..., found this Blog and liked my Hellboy so much that he took it and painted it up. I'm honored and thrilled with how it turned out. I think he took something that was only a so-so drawing and turned it into something really nice. He is not just a painter, but quite an artist himself - along with being a moderator of the Sketchbook Sessions http://www.sketchbooksessions.com/shanesboard/index.php
I agreed to let him post it there (that was a hard decision - yeah right) and he agreed to let me post it here.

Other unused designs...

In keeping with the earlier posts showing off unused designs that were created to try and get a job I thought I'd post a few more from a different pitch. It's either that or I could go on about the Rita situation and politics. I suspect anyone checking out my blog would probably rather see my art than hear my views.
When I did these presentation drawings the show was being put together by the same creative crew that did X-Men: Evolution. The show has gone ahead with other people involved and I haven't seen any of the final designs, but I suspect that they ended up being a lot brader than mine.

One more...

Here's the last of the images I creatd for this particular assignment. Actually, it's the last that I'm going to post. There were others, but they were actually me aping some other friends styles with the idea that if they liked those drawings in particular I would hire them. These were intended for a show I was going to direct.
As it turned out another artist was chosen and I ended up having to fill in some of the blanks after all.

Here’s another in this series. Some of these were intended to be more exaggerated and others (like this one) were intended to be more in line with my X-M:E style. I doubt I’ll post the really off-style ones. I wasn’t real happy with them.

More failure...

Here's another from the same project....

Failed drawings

I've been too busy (or is it too lazy) to post much lately, but I thought I'd do anyone that is actually watching for such things a courtesy of at least posting a few drawings.
These first few are spec/tryout drawings I did that didn't work for the client. I still like them though and just came across them recently while exploring some of my desktop folders.
I'll post some more later...

Prodigal Brother

This afternoon - out of the blue - I received an e-mail from someone asking if the Darryl and Jil Gordon at a hospital in Illinois could possibly be my brother and his wife. She left a phone number for the hospital and I called it. It turns out it was definitely them. They'd been there for 3 days. The hospital had set aside a couple of buildings - they called them pavillions - for evacuees of the NO flood.
They are both well and will be flying to Florida tomorrow to live with her sister.
Other than the fact that they hadn't been flooded out - they lived on the 4th floor of a building on Bourbon St - I couldn't get many facts out of them, but I'm sure now that communications have opened up (somewhat) I should be able to find out more...maybe?
I wasn't even able to find out how the mysterious e-mail correspondent had locatd them (I assume they were checking the lists that we had posted their names on), but I did thank her.

Anyway I thought this drawing appropriate for the occasion - somewhat? Oh, well. I knew no one had seen it yet....

Labor Day

In honor of meeting Mike Mignola the other day I thought I'd post a Hellboy I drew recently...mostly based on the movie more than Mignola's designs. I couldn't compete with him anyway so I thought "why try?"


Yup. I'm working, laboring, whatever...I've got plenty to keep me busy. I'm trying to prepare the next script in the series so i can get the story artists working Tuesday. It's fun, but time consuming.
I've listed my brother's name on several sites like the Next of Kin Registry with the hopes we might hear something.

I received my copy of Fire and Ice DVD SE and watched it with the family. My youngest son, Eric, had never even seen this film. He hadn't been born until after this production was finished and he seemed to enjoy it. I'm not nearly as critical (or defensive) of the film as I used to be and so I enjoyed seeing it again. What I really enjoyed was watching the supplemental materials on disc 1. It was fun seeing the "making of..." materials. Brought back some fond memories and it was pretty funny seeing the "great" Thomas Kincaide and his old friend James Gurney (the better of the two IMO)working hard to capture Frazetta's essence. It's a shame it was all too short. The second disc is the "Painting with Fire" Painting with Fire documentary on Frazetta, which I already owned and had seen when it was released on it's own DVD.

The Dark Tower

It seems like it's been years (I guess it has been actually)since I started reading and listening to Stephen King's The Dark Tower CD series, but I've finally completed the journey along with Roland. The last two books I listened to on audio CD (unabridged, of course) and it was quite enjoyable. The readings were great and the writing was, of course, exemplory. The ending was anti-climatic, also of course, but after 7 books and 20+ years how couldn't it be? But I've learned over the years not to read (or listen to) Stephen King for the exciting endings. It's the journey. I think even he knows that at this point and even alluded to that fact by the end of The Dark Tower CD.
One of my favorite Stephen King books of recent vintage was Bag of Bones. That one had a much more satisfying ending. Stepen King actually does the reading on the Bag of Bones CD and does an excellent job - as I guess any writer reading their own material should.

Over the years, I've often sat down and tried to do a drawing or two based on the Dark Tower, but was never satisfied. Maybe sometime still in the future....