Caricature Proposal

I've been really bad about updating my blog lately.  Been pretty busy with some gigs as well as some stuff of my own.  Over the next week or so I'll try to get this place up to date.  But first I'll dispense with one of the more recent events and also one of the more unique events of late.

So this guy named Gurj emails me like a month ago and starts a back and forth over several weeks.  He wants to propose to his girlfriend Neetu and he wants to do it in a special way.  His plan?  To hire me to pose as a street artist so the two of them can ask me to draw their caricature.  Meanwhile why they pose for the drawing I'm not just drawing them in any old pose, I'm drawing Gurj down on one knee in front of her with a talking bubble exclaiming the words, "Neetu, will you marry me?!"

The back and forth of emails was to figure out the details as you probably already guessed.  Location, day, time.  One major problem is I'm not actually a street artist so I don't have a busker's license.  I was a little worried about that because if I looked too much the part I could grab unwanted attention by nearby vendors who don't want me there or even the police.  My story would've probably saved me from any real legal trouble but my cover would be blown and the whole scenario would be wrecked.  On top of that I also didn't want other people lining up to get their drawings done before they got there...I didn't really think that would happen but hey you never know.  So the plan was for me to be a little more inconspicuous, just a guy drawing on the street who, when Gurj expressed interest, would offer a caricature and we'd be off and running.

The whole thing went down outside Rogers Arena near the box office where Gurj had told Neetu he needed to pick up tickets left for him by a friend.  In the meantime I was there drawing so they'd have reason to approach me when they showed up.  Gurj asked if I could be in the middle of a caricature, so that's what I did although in the end I don't think it mattered.  I didn't have any reference and there weren't any faces around me that I could get a very clear look at so I stuck with what I could maybe do from memory.  First, Groucho Marx.  Then a grizzled old Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I'm not crazy about the Arnold drawing but I do like the idea of drawing him all grizzled and geiserly so I might take another shot at that with some reference and a bit more time to play with it.

Next up of course was the main event and Gurj set up a camera for it.  He told Neetu he was trying to enter a Vancouver video contest or something.

She said yes!  I don't think she quite knew what to make of the drawing at first, I think it was just starting to sink in when she turned around and saw her now fiancee on one knee.  I think she thought maybe I'd drawn him proposing to her just to be cute, but then how would I have known her name?  That last question may have even creeped her out for a second before she realized what was going on.  Here's a photo of the two of them with their drawing.  It's a little out of focus.  You can see a better shot of the drawing at the end of the video.

Pork Cops is done!

Here's the poster...

This short ended up taking a lot longer to finish than I had intended but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Although I can't resist tinkering with the edit a little bit every time I watch it.  It's pretty fast paced so a little can go a long way with that edit tinkering.  This'll probably pop up on youtube eventually but I'm gonna submit it to a few festivals first and see what happens.

Here's some stills.

On the move!

Mid-air skunk

On the run!

Giddyup!

Stork at work

Mid-air pig

Quaint neighbourhood

Invading some privacy

Armed and dangerous

THE Pork Cops

A view of the stars

Local business

Season's Greetings

Here's a holiday message from the stars of my animated film, "The Case of the Midnight Murderer."

Have you seen the trailer yet?  It's not exactly festive but here it is...

Don't forget to show a little indie love and become a fan of the film on Facebook.  I haven't posted much on there as of late but I've got some stuff to post soon!  Notice how whenever I write "Facebook" it's a different colour?  That's cuz I've conveniently linked the word "Facebook" to take you to Facebook so you can become a fan of the film on Facebook.  Facebook.

Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!

There's not a lot to say about this one.  Just about everybody watches this this time of year and with good reason.  It never get's....get's...sorry...memories not what it used to be with this steel plate in my head.  Whenever someone fires up the microwave I piss my pants and forget my name for about half an hour or so.  I used to eat Squirrels but I found out they were high in cholesterol.

Where do you think you're going?  Nobody's leaving!  Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.  No, no.  We're all in this together.  This is a full-blown, four alarm holiday emergency here.  We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye.  And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.

Classic.  Happy Holidays everybody.

Pork Cops

I'm currently working on a short starring the "Pork Cops."  Here're the turnarounds for the cops themselves as well as the perp they're after in the short.

The idea for the characters goes all the way back to art school when I doodled the Pork Cops in a sketchbook and tossed them in the 'maybe one day' pile and then forgot about them.  I didn't have a plot or anything at the time, just the characters.  Something sparked my memory of these guys though about a year ago and it seemed like the perfect cartoon to do when I was finished with "The Case of the Midnight Murderer."  After almost 2 years of animating a black and white comedy-noir cartoon I thought it'd be really fun to do something super cartoony and bright and different.  It's taken a while to get rolling on it though.  I had wanted to jump into this as soon as I wrapped Midnight Murderer but I was a little too burnt out to dive into anything that wasn't paying me right away.  I finally storyboarded it in March and then got really busy with work and stuff and it was October before I was able to revisit it again.  October is also when I volunteer at the Vancouver Film Festival and Writers Festival so it was painfully slow getting to where I am now.  The characters are ready and so are the backgrounds.  Here're some backgrounds.

Hmm...

 The short has a very urban setting.  My original plan was to actually film and photograph parts of downtown Vancouver and have live action backgrounds.  It would've been a neat contrast to the cartoony characters.  Ultimately though when I decided on my plot and all the gags I wanted to include any amount of live action wasn't gonna work.  So I went the opposite with crudely proportioned buildings and wonky perspective.

Some undies.  No biggie.

There're a lot of these city street backgrounds.  The short moves at breakneck speed and I didn't realize what my BG count was getting to till I started drawing them.

These look dangerous.

The city is called Vanzoover.  My first idea was Zoo York and then I found out that was already taken.  It was a bitch trying to come up with something else even half way clever.  It didn't even occur to me for the longest time to consider spoofing Vancouver which is pretty funny considering I'd been thinking about actually using the real city at one point.

There's some action in a construction site too.

Last but not least the climax takes place on this grassy knoll type spot.  I'll be starting animation on this thing this week and hopefully get it done within 2 weeks.  I'm pretty sure I can keep that goal barring any unforseen events.  This'll be a seven minute short give or take and I'm gonna see if it can get some festival play so I won't be able to post the finished short online immediately but I'll probably post some stills and what not once it's all together.

The Social Networks.

Have you ever tried juggling?  I have, a few times, but I'm not very good at it.  I tried juggling bean bags, but I dropped them.  I tried juggling pieces of fire wood but I almost rendered myself unconscious.  And I once tried juggling chainsaws in Mexico and had to flee the country to avoid a manslaughter charge.  Okay I made that last one up...I've generally avoided juggling chainsaws regardless of my geographical position.  These days this is all the juggling I do...

One of the biggest things for any kind of artist is getting your stuff seen by people.  That used to be pretty much impossible to pull off unless you were lucky or had an agent or something to book appearances and gallery shows.  That was back when you had to wear a beret and a smock at all times so that people knew you were an artist.  In today's world that means the internet, and everything that comes with it.  You can only hold out for so long when a new Social Networking site crops up before jumping on the bandwagon.  Truth be told I actually have some fun with all of these sites.  YouTube lets me post my animation for the world to see.  I like writing and ranting on Blogger.  I like looking at art of all kinds on Deviant Art.  I like posting rapid project updates and smart ass commentary on Twitter.  I like the reach of Facebook and keeping it active with stuff.  And Tumblr...well I'm new to Tumblr but I'm sure I'll have fun with it too.  There's just so many of them!  And I'm sure there's more to come too.  Here they are if you wanna check out, or join or follow or what not.

You can see my official Outhouse Cartoons website here.
You can become a fan on Facebook here.
You can follow me on Twitter here.
You can watch me on Deviant Art here.
You can subscribe to me on YouTube here.
You can follow me on Blogger here.  No link for this one...you're already on Blogger you nut!
You can follow me on Tumblr here.

And while I'm at it too.  You can also follow my twice weekly webcomic, "Cowman" via Blogger here.  And become a fan of my film, "The Case of the Midnight Murderer" on Facebook here.

50 Years of Bond

I'm a 007 fan, as many people are.  This year marks not only the release of the 23rd Bond film but the 50th birthday of the James Bond film franchise and as a result the character and the movies have been discussed a lot lately.  I'm even set to help my photographer friend, Brad of BWD Photography with a Bond tribute photo shoot.  All this stuff coalesced and I drew this poster you see here.

When I envisioned this thing I got pretty excited but it was a little bittersweet.  I had to move a project I've been struggling to get rolling on to the back burner to do this.  Sometimes you have to take advantage of an idea while it's fresh or you won't do it all.  Can you spot and name all the stuff?  I won't do all the work for you but here's a list of everything included in this poster.  See if you can find it all.  Don't be afraid to imdb if you have to, but try to do it without.

Astin Martin - from Goldfinger(1964) and beyond
Tatiana Romanova - from From Russia With Love(1963)
Domino - from Thunderball(1965)
A snake - from Live And Let Die(1973)
Torture chair and knotted rope - from Casino Royale(2006)
Crocodile - from Live And Let Die(1973)
Nick Nack - from The Man With The Golden Gun(1974)
Submarine - from Thunderball(1965)
The Golden Girl - from Goldfinger(1964)
Martini Shaker - from any of them
Missiles - from most of them
Tiffany Case - from Diamonds Are Forever(1971)
May Day - from A View To A Kill(1985)
Tracy Bond - from On Her Majesty's Secret Service(1969)
Blofeld - from You Only Live Twice(1967)
Skis - from The Spy Who Loved Me(1977)
Scottish Flag - not from any of them really, but he was born in Scotland
Jaws - from The Spy Who Loved Me(1977) and Moonraker(1979)
Largo - from Thunderball(1965)
Vodka - from any of them
Plenty O'Toole - from Diamonds Are Forever(1971)
Space Shuttle - from Moonraker(1979)
A shark - from License To Kill(1989)
Playing cards and Poker chips - from many of them
Oddjob - from Goldfinger(1964)
Doctor No - from Dr No(1962)
Grant - from From Russia With Love(1963)
Auric Goldfinger - from Goldfinger(1964)
Francisco Scaramanga - from The Man With The Golden Gun(1974)
Pussy Galore - from Goldfinger(1964)
Octopus - from Octopussy(1983)
Octopussy - from Octopussy(1983)
Solitaire - from Live And Let Die(1973)
Q - from From Russia With Love(1963) all the way to The World Is Not Enough(1999)
Laser watch - from Goldeneye(1995)
Honey Ryder - from Dr. No(1962)
Vesper Lynd - Casino Royale(2006)
Moneypenny(Lois Maxwell) - from Dr. No(1962) to A View To A Kill(1985)
M(Judi Dench) - from Goldeneye(1995) to present
M(Bernard Lee) - from Dr No(1962) to Moonraker(1979)
Jetpack - from Goldfinger(1964)
Felix Leiter(Jeffrey Wright) - from Casino Royale(2006)
James Bond, modeled mainly on Sean Connery - from Dr No(1962) to Diamonds Are Forever(1971)
Satellite - from Diamonds Are Forever(1971)
Helicopter - from From Russia With Love(1963)
Martini glass - from all of them.  The man liked to drink.
Gun barrel - from every single one of them.