Here are a couple of still paintings from my forever in the works masterpiece, Robo-3000. I’ve been working on it for three years now, which is sad, because its definitely no award winner. Its a crude story to be sure, but its kinda funny and it allows me to do a lot of different things. The set are hand made and were professionally lit and shot. The animation is pretty complex and uses a bunch of programs. It even will have some 3D stuff. I’ve been painting these still digitally and have been using Little Annie Fanny for color reference.

Here are a couple more stills from Robo 3000 that I just finished. I’m going to add a couple more things before these go into the film, but for the most part this is it.

Here is a rough version of the Club Glorp exterior for Robo 3000. I’m still working out all of the kinks with the matte painting in the background, but I think I’m close to being where I want to be. I took the original film and desaturated it and then recolored it on a layer set to overlay. It makes it much more stylized.

I’m test animating a scene of the bartender character just slamming a drink, but this is just a stage/color test. I also added a couple of flourishes and touched up the Club Glorp shot. As I get into this more it becomes more and more clear that this cartoon will take me a looooong time.

Here is a rough test shot. I’m working on imbetweening right now and then its off for compositing. Many thanks to Senor Chad for his technical advice. Click the pic below and wait for a bit for the movie to load. I was too lazy to add a preloader.

I did a spec commercial in 12 hours. It turned out great for such a quick turnaround. Things are really picking up around here and I’m liking it!

This commercial was done in a UPA-like style and was an effort in restrain. Robo 3000 is saturated and crowded, so it was nice to try something sparse with just a couple of colors. Check it out and pass it on. Maybe I can do a whole commercial on my own.

I have now completed over 50 pages of Lulu & Mitzy, filling up the first of three Itoya Art Portfolios (24 acetate sheathes that hold 48 pages). It feels like a real accomplishment holding it in my hands. I want to cuddle up next to it in bed, but this strange Japanese woman refuses to sleep on the couch.

Below is a shot of my crowded and ergonomic-unfriendly desk:

-Tons of pens, brushes, pencils, and ink. Check.
-Computer. Check.
-Wacom Tablet. Check.
-Headphones for listening to The Learning Channel’s Gunfighters of The Old West while inking. Check.
-Sergio Aragone’s Groo the Wanderer issue 32 at hand for inspiration. Check.
-Photocopy of a cover of The Weekly World News for no apparent reason. Check.

All systems are go.

I am a sucker when it comes to freelance work. I generally go above and beyond the call of duty on a project when the payoff doesn’t really warrant it. Like this last week, I designed a brochure and splashpage for some plush toys I designed for a startup clothing company, designed multiple ‘roughs’ for a web design company I occasionally work for, designed and produced a long-running ‘zine, all the while having to address production issues on my own book. And let’s not forget I have a full-time day job laying out books. I busted my ass from 7A.M. until 11P.M. everyday up until today. I made probably $300.

The reward is, as it has been on these projects, that I get to work on some kick ass stuff from time to time. Granted, its insulting when you work this hard and clients dismiss your work out of a lack of understanding or direction, especially when you are working for them either pro bono or gratis. If I receive very little direction and spend 6 hours designing and painting an illustration only to have a client say, “y’know, that’s not really what I had in mind,” I feel like crying inside. For some reason, some clients think I just hit some filter in Photoshop and TA-DA – art! If it were really that easy I wonder why they don’t just do it themselves? Because there is more to it than that! Sometimes the only filters I use are maybe blur or sharpen.

Enough with the kvetching, let’s take a look at what I did last week. And my apologies to Chad, with whom I was late delivering the goods.

First up, here’s a project I love working on because I’m pretty much given carte blanche on what I can do. And this time, I got to illustrate the cover. This is a ‘zine called The Harveyville Fun Times! that’s been around for 16 years. I redesigned the whole thing for four color printing on the last issue and this is the cover to the most recent. I love designing publications and I rarely get the chance to do it. Most of the time at my job I just fill in and arrange a pre-designed template, but not here. This is the Halloween issue and it’s due out in October.

Up next, these are items I did for the children’s clothing/toy line. The plushies turned out great and I want one super bad, but I have to wait until after the Las Vegas trade show (which is this week!). The first image is the front of the brochure and the next one is a splashpage I painted for the website. It still needs some work, but for a guy who doesn’t paint that often I think it turned out nice. FYI: I did not take the photo for the cover.

And lastly, I did a bunch of business card mockups for my pal Jeremy at Circle Division. These are going to print on a transparent/frosted acetate and have a die-cut cover. As the card is pulled the circles divide in color. Pretty cool. This design has not been settled on, but I thought it was kinda cool.

As for this week, I have to start working on marketing and publicity materials for Lulu & Mitzy and continue to work on a new book, which you can see a sample of in the previous post.