Teenage Mutant Ninja what...?

The first time I heard about the Turtles was a phone call asking if I'd like to work on what would be the first animated series for the characters. I couldn't believe what the show was called or about and didn't have the time to work on it (I think I was still busy on Swan Princess at the time). My wife and I had a good laugh about how ridiculous the show sounded.
After that I've learned to never pre-judge any show by how silly the name or premise is since clearly I had no idea what a huge show or property TMNT would turn into.

Since then I have worked on the characters when I story-boarded and created character expressions for another version - the series produced by 4Kids several years ago. I also saw that a new series is currently in the works and they were looking for a character designer so when this suggestion came in for fan request Friday I thought I could do sort of an impromptu audition and give my version of a TMNT design. But since I never even received a phone call or e-mail I figured instead of drawing something that would make me look desperate I might as well have fun and just draw a version of them that I enjoyed working on.

Something Mysterious....

I'm not sure how many of you have been keeping up with the mystery of the Mysterious Hipsters that Scott Snyder (American Vampire, Voodoo Heart,  Detective Comics) discovered about a week ago. It seems that these two guys seem to be popping up in quite few children's books in various cameos and Scott tweeted about it.. Here's the iFanboy's coverage of what happened. So go ahead over there and read up on it and then come back. I'll wait......

....Okay, I assume you're back now. If you dig further you'll see this mystery has gained legs and has been picked up by quite a few other fan sites, blogs, Salon and Facebook (the Mystery Hipsters even have a FB page of their own). So, when I put up the Tweet for suggestions for Fan Request Friday last week I received quite a requests for these two guys and one even suggested I put them in Voltron uniforms. That seemed like a good idea and appropriate (I'll explain the Voltron connection in a bit).

When this week started my work load seemed to be lighter than usual and I planned on doing several more drawings, but not surprisingly the work load increased significantly by mid-week and  I ran out of time so my intent is still to finish these other drawings and to add them to the blog as soon as I can.

Now, what I was referring to before in regards to drawing the Mystery Hipsters in Voltron uniforms, is that for the last several months (and off and on prior to this) I've been working on a new series Voltron Force set to premiere on Nicktoons in June as the Supervising Director. The uniforms I chose for our hipster friends is not based on our new show, but based on the classic Voltron and they are not in the show (to my knowledge) so don't read too much into this drawing.

Madmen, Zombies, 2 Phantoms and BC

Seems like I'm always running late on posting my choices for Fan Request Friday. Every Monday I start out thinking to myself:  "Wow! Things are moving along nicely and I'm making great progress  - I should have no problem getting these done before midweek" Then Thursday rolls around and I'm knee deep in putting out fires and meeting deadlines that I didn't even know existed until Wednesday. So I find myself trying to squeeze in a drawing while I'm waiting for downloads and what not. As always, I had much bigger plans for these drawings then you see here, but I had to settle for what I could accomplish. All in all, I think they came out pretty nice and I hope you enjoy them.

The first is a classic character from the Golden Age of comics and that is enough to get me interested in giving it a shot - in case you couldn't tell I have quite a bit of affection for that time period: The Phantom Lady

The next is one I'd been working on for awhile and and was never satisfied with where it was going. I think I'm pretty happy now with the end results. The Ghost Who Walks - The Phantom

I'm not rely familiar with Mike Allred's Madman, but I always like the look of the character and when it was suggested I thought it was worth a try. But if you want to see some truly inspired work go over to Comictwart to see their Madman interpretations

The last is sort of a special case. A friend I met via Twitter, who is always very supportive, suggested his own character Z-Girl. She has an interesting look and thought it was an interesting challenge. So if you like this drawing (or even if you don't) go on over to his web-site to learn more about the character.

So now you know what most of the Title above means, but you're probably thinking to yourself: "BC? Who is BC?"
The "BC" isn't a character, but a place. I have to leave Monday morning for Vancouver, BC for a sound mix for the series I'm working on as Supervising Director. If you're sharp and follow me on Twitter you probably already know what show it is, but if you still have no idea then stay tuned to Nickelodeon Monday. I understand they're going to start promoting it pretty heavily for it's premiere in June. I'll be shocked if most fans don't like this show and what we've done with it and if it doesn't create a whole new generation of fans.

When it rains...

Once again I'm running late on my choices for Fan Request Friday, but this time the reasons are more mechanical than organic.
I had been working pretty steadily on quite a few choices all week and thought it'd be nice to post them before Friday's next request went out.
Now that I'm working pretty exclusively at home for awhile I'd planned on getting a bigger, better computer, but I wanted to wait a few more weeks before I made that big of a purchase and I hate changing computers and having to reload all my software and programs and drivers, etc. - thankfully all my files are already on external drives so that's not an issue. But apparently computers have a mind of their own. I've spent the entire day Thursday screwing and fighting with Outlook and my computer in general.  I guess my current computer decided it wanted to push up that timeline if it could, so instead of getting ahead on work and FRF choices I just spent the day rebooting Outlook and my computer over and over.
Finally I've gotten it to the point where it's somewhat functional....somewhat...

Anyway, here are my choices for the last 2 weeks:

The first is Creeper. This is a character I've had little contact with even though he was created when I still read comics years ago. He never interested me that much just like Ditko's other attempts to catch lightning in a bottle for a second time. I thought I'd try to update his look a bit - or, at least, his hair style. Not sure it helped or not.

This one was an interesting challenge for me. I never liked most of the other versions of Balrog I've seen, from all the fanart to the Bakshi film to Jackson's version (though I will say Jackson's was probably the best). Not sure if this is any better, but I had some fun with it. If I have time I might take this to full color and that should improve it considerably

Popeye has been suggested several times and I wasn't sure how to approach it. I could do a straight cartoony version and keep him on model or I could go very staright and just make it look like a muscular guy in a sailor suit, but then I take the chance of making it seem as if I'm not capable of drawing in a cartoony style (that is an accusation that gets thrown at a lot of us action/adventure artists in animation quite a bit). So I thought I'd go with a hybrid and use my own sense of cartoony/straight . Not sure it works, but I had some fun with it.

And last, but not least is something I'd been playing with since frank died and finally decided to just finish the portion featuring Larn and Teegra. haven't drawn these characters since I finished work on the film and now I remember why I didn't animate that many scenes of Teegra.

News...

Because of the news yesterday - the devastating earthquake in Japan - I decided to suspend calling out for suggestions for FanRequestFriday. It seemed kind of silly to carry on with such trivial pursuits in the wake of the news, but don't worry I will return to it next Friday - unless, of course something else comes along that is equally devastating *ptoot, ptoot, ptoot* (spitting 3 times is an old Jewish tradition of warding off the evil eye or bad luck for those of you not in the tribe).

Speaking of news (pretty tacky segue, eh?) I have some news myself. After finishing my stint as a director on the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes  - season 2 I've taken the position of Supervising Director on a new series that's a continuation of a fan favorite from many years ago. No, it's not Marvel and X-Men related. The series has been announced, but I'm still hesitant to reveal what it is since those in charge probably want to control any publicity or news coming out about it. It's a show that I've been involved with since it was originally pitched and now they've offered me a chance to see it through post production.

So, with that out of the way, I will now post my choices (for the last 2 weeks) for Fan Request Friday:

This first one has been requested consistently ever since the Coen Brother's excellent True Grit came out into theaters. True Grit was film I enjoyed quite a bit and I almost always enjoy Jeff Bridges acting (though I haven't seen the reboot of Tron yet)

I usually try to avoid drawing actors' likenesses and this week (actually 2 weeks) I ended up doing two drawings with three actors. Anyone who has been with me for awhile probably knows that I was a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon's series not the movie, of course) and since I've already drawn Buffy and Angel it seemed fitting that I draw Buffy and Spike - or Spuffy as it was requested. I went a little more animation style on  this one and I think it came out nicer than the drawing I did of Buffy and Angel (Bangel?). I might have to revisit that one sometime in the future and take another crack at it.

This last one is pretty obscure, but it intrigued me - as it has every time I've seen these characters. A bullet shaped helmet?  Really? Anyway, it gave me a chance to go retro so I went with it. Here is Bullet Man and Bullet Girl from the 1940s

AN AFTERNOON OF REMEMBRANCE

The Animation Community's annual memorial ceremony is coming up this Saturday.


The Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present

AN AFTERNOON OF REMEMBRANCE

a celebration of the lives of departed friends from our animation community:

Aron Abrams, Alex Anderson, Yvonne “Vonnie” Batson, Tom Bird, Betty Brooks, Charlie Callas, Eddie Carroll, Robert Culp, Robert Dettloff, John Dorman, Peter Fernandez, Frank Frazetta, Ronald Gans, John Garling, Tony Geiss, Colene Gonzales, Louis Gorham, Ernie Guanlao, Heidi Guedel Garofalo, Steven Hodgson, Ben Hurst, Chris Jenkyns, Alex Johns, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Peter Keefe, Betty Kimball, Aron Kincaid, Kip King, Boyd Kirkland, Satoshi Kon, Rudy Larriva, Annette Leavitt, Phil Lewis, Bill Littlejohn, Carl Macek, Diane Jacobs Matranga, Grant McCune, Robert McIntosh, Judy Niver, Ann Oliphant, Shana Ozark, Betty Paraskevas, J. C. Ponce, Tom Ray, Dan Read, Billie Mae Richards, Jesus Rodriguez, Pres Romanillos, Ken Sanders, Don Schloat, Sara Seaberry, John Sparey, Claudia Ross Thompson, Te Wei, Andrew Witkin, Ilene Woods
Saturday, March 5, 2011

Food and refreshments, noon
Memoriams, 1 pm

Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)
2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood

The Afternoon is free of charge and is open to all; no RSVPs are necessary.

Hey, look at that...

...I'm almost on time with my Fan Request Friday choice  - in fact, you could say I'm early!

The Inhumans have been requested quite a few times over the last few months (and not always by the same person!), so I thought it was time to give these kissing cousins a try.
I'm starting to put together another sketchbook so this, and many of the other requests, should find a place in it. It's going to be published by the fine folks at House of Secrets - as soon as I can dig through all my folders and find enough drawings. I'll keep you informed when it's available for sale.

Light as a feather....

...and almost carefree. Or, at least, that's how I feel in comparison to the last month or so now that I've put to bed two Green lantern movie adaptations for GrossettDunlap. Because of the movie release date the deadlines were really tight and it left for very little breathing room. Especially since I had many other obligations for work that I also couldn't drop the ball on.
I'm also going to use this as my excuse for why I was, for two weeks in a row late (okay, a complete no show) with my picks for Fan Request Friday. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, here are picks from last week and two weeks ago. The first has been requested multiple times and since part of it was requested two weeks ago (the Flash and Dale part) and the other part (Ming) was requested last week it seemed like a good idea to put it together in one piece.

The next choice has been suggested on and off for awhile and much more consistently lately  - probably due to its second season premiere. I started watching Archer when it first came on and I really enjoy the writing and sensibility of the whole show. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend checking it out. You can click on the link above and it will take you to Amazon where you can buy season 1 or just check it out on TV when you get a chance.

This last piece I've been sitting on for awhile because it was a commissioned piece for someone's birthday and i didn't want to accidentally spoil it by posting it too early. The birthday girl has received it and I'm no longer worried about that. Here is many an X-Men fan's fantasy: Wolverine and Rogue getting married. I was asked to use the Wolverine and the X-Men designs and I through 'reality' to the wind and had them kiss...

Some BS and SM...

...just perfect for this week's Fan Request Friday's choice of the Horned King. He's been requested several times and I finally thought it might be time to go ahead and draw the horny one again. Pretty sure I haven't drawn him since I animated my last scene on the Black Cauldron way back in 1985 or 1984. Back then at Disney they didn't have official Key animators (though everyone knew who they were) and no one received that type of credit until several films later. I understand it was Glen Keane who helped push for that, but that was a long time after I left so it doesn't really effect me much either way. Anyway, I sort of inherited the position of Key animator on the Horned King and ended up animating  most of the character's big scenes (all that were, left that is) including his fight with Taran at the end at 95% of his death scene. Of course at that time we all animated whatever characters were usually in a scene and didn't worry as much about who did what and so I also did all the animation for Taran in that fight as well. Black Cauldron will never be considered a great film, but I had a good time working on it and I'm pretty proud of the work i did on it.
One of these days I'll have to write more about my short time at the big D.

So, remember last week, when I never got around to posting the choices for FRF...? Well, here they are...

The first is Brenda Starr. A head in period clothing - what's not to like?

And the second is Superman - oddly enough, no one's ever requested him before. I've been drawing him so often for the HarperCollins kid's book that I illustrate that I thought it was worth taking a slightly different approach.  I'm not sure if I like it better or not...

RIP Boyd Kirkland

Instead of posting my drawing choices today for Fan Request Friday, I thought I needed to devote a little space and time to the passing of a great producer, director, writer, storyboard artist, collaborator and friend, Boyd Kirkland.
If you haven't already heard Boyd passed away several days ago after a long battle with pulmonary disease. He was too young to go and he still had plenty more to offer. Even though it wasn't completely unexpected all that knew him and worked with him will feel the loss. I also suspect that all his fans will miss him as well.

Boyd and I worked together often over the years. Sometimes he would hire me to work for him and sometimes we would work side-by-side. On every project I always admired his dedication, his creativity, his sense of art direction and his willingness to let others do what they do best. It was always a pleasure to work with him.
When he hired me to work on X-Men:Evolution everyone was initially worried that this would turn into something akin to an "X-Men Babies" type of show. Thankfully that wasn't the case and he tirelessly worked at  keeping the integrity of our re-imagined X world viable and solid. During XME Boyd, and all the directors  would spend almost every lunchtime discussing story ideas and ways to improve the show. Many of what I consider to be the best ideas for the series came about this way including the Logan and Capt America WWII teamup and the re-imagining of Wanda, the Scarlet Witch.
It wasn't until a few years ago that he realized just how many fans XME really had. A couple of years ago at SDCC when we were sitting in the audience for a panel for Wolverine and the X-Men (the new show we were currently involved with) a couple of fans recognized us and came up to sing XME's praises. He seemed stunned that we'd been recognized and he hadn't realized the impact that the show still had on fans. One of the most beloved XME episodes was all due to Boyd. On Angel's Wings was not only produced by Boyd, but it was also written by him.

Shows that he produced always had a lot of heart and character in them and I was always proud to be involved with them. This last year he was still busy directing on the second season of The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes and I was glad I could work alongside him one more time.

Most important of all, Boyd was one of the good guys and a good friend. I'll miss him

Busy, busy, busy...

...for right now, but I'm starting to see some daylight at the end of the tunnel finally. The drawings for Fan Request Friday are still in process and should be done soon, but in the meanwhile I thought I'd give everyone a treat and post the inked and painted version of a drawing I did (you can see my pencil drawing here: http://stevenegordon.blogspot.com/2010/11/from-past-to-future.html ). This was inked and painted by the fantastic Francesco Francavilla, which seems very appropriate since I based my drawing on an idea Francesco had that he posted to a  ComicTwart, a blog which, if you haven't checked out already, you really need to get over there right away.

Keeping them spinning...

It seems that as soon as some plates are done spinning there are immediately others to take their place. Right now, I still have quite few them on poles spinning away, but I'm hoping that it won't belong before it settles down to just 3 or 4. Ahhh, but to dream.

Anyway, here are my choices (late again) for Fan request Friday. The first is the Black Panther, character that I actually had a chance to do models of previously for the Ultimate Avengers 2 direct-to-video, but I was never happy with what the end results. So when he was suggested by my good friend Francesco Francavilla (who is currently working on some Marvel comics featuring him)it seemed like a good opportunity to take another crack at T'Challa. This time I decided to go pretty simple and stick with the basic panther look. I like this better than my other version, but I'm still not sure this is THE way to go with him. Oh, well. I thought I'd also move him from Wakanda and into Hell's Kitchen.

Red Sonja has appeared on the request list numerous times before and I often debated doing her, but since so many had in the past it seemed somewhat futile to try a version of her. Well, I finally decided to give it a go after there were three requests for her last Friday.

And the last is someone new to the list and someone who's been mentioned many times before. In case you couldn't figure it out, Teela is the newbie. I thought I'd push both Teela and She-Ra to work somewhat with my version of He-man that I did earlier.

Ultimate plate spinning...

This month is turning out to be very busy for me. When it rains it pours, but I'm not complaining. There have been times (2009, yeah, I'm talking to you) when work was pretty thin so I usually take any work that's offered unless their many deadlines overlap too much. It's just a matter of keeping all those plates spinning. I go from one project to the next doing a little work on each to make sure they all move along and when their respective due dates come near I hit that particular project a little harder and longer. Unfortunately several of those deadlines are starting to come up very near one another so the plate spinning has gotten a little more extreme than usual.
All of this is explanation for why last week's Fan Request Friday's drawings are just now being posted. I know I don't need to apologize and I appreciate everyone letting me know this, but still the guilt remains. Must be a Jewish thing.

So this week I only tackled two drawings (and a third which I'll reveal sometime later that was a commission).
The first is the Lone Ranger and his friend Tonto. With the premiere of the Green Hornet  movie coming up soon it seemed like a good choice. If you're not sure what I'm talking about then it's time to go to Google and do a little research. I decided to try a little more of a realistic take on these two instead of the typical singing cowboy look that is the standard. Not sure it works, but it's close to what I had in mind.

The second is a character I am only barely familiar with but I was looking for something that I could do quickly and and was a a little on the cheesecake side of things. Keeps it interesting for me - and I hope for you too. So here is Namora. After I scanned the drawing I realized that I had forgot to add any water effects, but I was already onto the next set of plates that needed spinning so you'll just have to imagine that she's swimming.

I'll be curious to see if either these get removed by Photobucket and I'm also curious who is complaining about the drawings that do get removed...

Old Lang's sign...

I know a man, his name is Lang,
And he has a neon sign.
And Mister Lang is very old,
So they call it Old Lang's Sign.
-Allan Sherman 

Ahh, I couldn't resist quoting from one of the funniest songwriters ever, Allan Sherman. If you've never heard of him or heard his music you're missing something. I have a link attached to his name at the bottom of the quote, but feel free to Google him as well...

...anyway, since it is the New Year and since it's been quite a few years since the end of X-Men: Evolution, I figure Rogue has grown up to be a mature woman and this wouldn't be so creepy, so I decided to finally give so many of you XME fans what you've been dying for...

And since I played hooky form Fan Request Friday last week I thought I'd make it up by going a little overboard. While I was reading all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' books as a kid my older brother was reading the Doc Savage Bantam re-issued pulp paperbacks. I also read them off and on and enjoyed the atmosphere and the stories of the first Superman and his crew - especially Ham and Monk.

Here's a Spaceghost drawing I'd been planning for awhile and finally decided it was time to wrap it up. Not sure it succeeds as a Spaceghost pic, but I kind of like how it turned out. (for those keeping count this was another image that was deemed unacceptable by Photobucket - maybe they hate monkeys...?)

And what New Years would be complete without a little cheesecake and what better cheesecake is there (in the animation world, at least) other than Holli Would and Lonette from Cool World. I haven't drawn these 2 girls since the film was released and I no longer was getting paid. Between you and me, I always liked Lonette better.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Not too late...

Despite the holidays coming up there were still some really great suggestions and I wish I could've gotten to a few more. But, because of the holidays coming up, I have quite a few deadlines that needed to be tackled and those, unfortunately, come first. Crazy, huh?
Maybe I'll be able to squeeze in few more next weekend so don't give up and keep making your suggestions.

Here's one that's been suggested almost every week for quite awhile now and I thought it was time to tackle it. I vaguely recall Ultraman from way back when, but I don't recall watching many of the shows (movies?) This one's for you Little John.

And don't forget that my sketchbooks are still available - both of them. Just click on the link to the side for my 2nd sketchbook and if you want the first one instead of the second just mention that in the instructions for Paypal or e-mail me directly.

A new record...

Lately it seems like every week I'm apologizing or trying to justify why I'm so late to post the choice for Fan Request Friday. Well, this week I think I've outdone myself.  But I do have a good excuse. Sunday I went with the whole family to Disneyland and barely had time to do any work at all and with so little time being spent on the board it seemed a little frivolous to spend time doing the FRF drawing.

Anyway, enough with weak explanations...
This weeks choice is Firebreather. It was suggested by Andy Kuhn himself and when the creator of a character suggests I do their creation it's a little hard to refuse. I've admired Andy's work for some time and I really like the look of Firebreather. In fact, I'm a little disappointed that when they adapted it to a move on Cartoon Network they didn't use more of his style and make it a 2D film. But I've heard that the movie did really well and hope Andy and his co-creator, Phil Hester, benefit greatly from its success. My drawing isn't nearly as cool or graphic as what Andy does, but I had fun doing it...

All aglow...

Talk about running late, eh? A freelance job that I was wrapping up over the weekend took longer to finish than I expected (don't they all?) and so I didn't get to this till late yesterday.
Here is Tron and Yuri. Ever since seeing some of the trailers and teasers for the new film, Tron Legacy, and the teaser for the new TV series by Disney TV (best looking thing I've ever seen done for TV in animation!) I've been interested in doing something like this and when it was requested I seized the opportunity.
The subject demanded a little more color than I've done previously for these particular pieces.  As I'm sure the Tron fans and experts will agree I kind of faked the actual light patters, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Quite a bit is happening in my professional life (especially in regards to freelance work). I just finished (as previously mentioned) an IronMan Adventures book for Random House (in 3D!) and I'm working on another Superman book as well as another Batman book for HarperCollins Kids - use this link to navigate to Amazon if you're interested in buying any of them and then do a search for my name. I'm also working on some Green Lantern books (based on the upcoming movie) for GrossettDunlap. Pretty odd how in my dayjob I've been the Marvel animation guy (hardly ever working on any WB shows) and in my freelance life I've become a DC guy.

Speaking of my day job, I'm wrapping up the gig on The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2 (which won't be on TV for about a year) in about a month and a half and I'm starting to look around for the next one. I'll let you know where I end up as soon as I know..

The lost weekend...

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  It was quite nice having a long weekend even though I had plenty of freelance to occupy the time I wasn't spending with family.
You'd think that in all that time I would've been able to draw more than just one Fan Request. I know I sure thought I would. In fact, I had planned on doing several drawings and had even started them, but realized I was running out of time and the freelance kept calling to me...if you know what I mean. I had even imagined that the weekend was so long that I'd have time to tackle a couple of personal projects. Silly me. Maybe next 4-day weekend, eh?

Anyway, I need to post this and get back to the freelance.
Someone suggested Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. My son introduced me to her books some time ago (maybe a dozen years ago?) and I read the first one, but I must admit that was as far as I got. Maybe I'll have to re-visit the series at a later date. In my free time, of course. With all the interest these days in vampires I'm kind of surprised these books still haven't made it to film though it is nice to see that the books have been translated into comics.

I'd also like to thank Jessica Steele Allen who's photo I borrowed for this particular drawing.

Potterville

When Harry Potter was suggested for Fan Request Friday it seemed to be an obvious choice with HP7.1 opening to such a great opening weekend - especially considering the phenomenon that these books and movies have become. A whole generation seems to have grown up knowing these characters their entire life. I think what I like best about what JK Rowling did is how the stories aged and became more mature as the characters became more mature - as well as her audience. Or maybe she just continued to improve as a writer. Either way I thought I'd give Harry and his friends a shot. I didn't try too hard to achieve an exact likeness, but go for more of a nice setup (and that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

From the past to the future...

Ever since I saw my friend, Francesco Francavilla's drawing of an imaginary group he calls the First Avengers several weeks ago, I've been trying to put together this drawing. He did suggest for fan Request Friday, but it almost felt more like fan art to me and I wanted to do my best to get it just right.
If you're not familiar with Francesco's work you should be. He's finally starting to get some well deserved notice and some very high profile jobs. So go check out his web-site and his blog - as well as a blog that he and several other very talented artists contribute to called Comic Twart. That's where Francesco originally came up with the First Avengers and each week they fill it with wonderful new images.

This other image caught my imagination almost immediately, but it took me awhile to actually come up with a way to do it. I knew I wanted to try and do a straight version of these characters, but it wasn't as easy as I originally imagined. At one point I almost gave up and was about to select another choice, but I persevered and what I think I finally came up with seems to keep the attitudes of the characters despite the fact that I had to add chins to their faces.