Joe Apel

New Sketches NOW WITH COLOR!

2012-02-08T02:41:00.002-05:00

Stephen Silver introducing Posebook App

2012-01-15T18:08:00.001-05:00

Stephen Silver held a seminar introducing his new iPhone/iPad/Android app, Posebook. It's a great new app for artists that need reference while drawing. It was released before Thanksgiving, but there'll be updates and additional versions coming in the near future.


Stephen brought with him the model in the Male Posebook pack, John Tucker dressed as a pirate. I sketched him while Stephen was talking about the app.

These were 30 second poses. I hadn't been to a life drawing class in awhile and I could immediately tell I was rusty.

We then drew 5 minute poses, which I felt I was getting better with.

The last thing Stephen encouraged us to do was look at the pose for 30 seconds, then the model would move. In 2 - 3 minutes we had to draw the model from memory. It was difficult mostly because the model was staring right at me, it made me self-conscious and I wasn't really focused on observing him, but rather "why did he choose to stare right at me?"

Traveling sketches

2012-01-10T13:50:00.003-05:00

Rebecca and I did a lot of traveling over the holidays, so here's a few of the sketches I made of the people on trains and in airports

Random Doodles

2012-01-10T13:42:00.001-05:00

Some random drawings, mostly done while watching TV.

This one is a caricature of Helen Mirren in the Arthur remake. Not sure how successful it is:

Nerds

2012-01-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

Hands

2012-01-10T01:32:00.001-05:00

I know I don't draw hands enough, so I'm trying to sketch them more often.

Kids

2012-01-09T23:08:00.002-05:00

Here are a bunch of kid drawings:

Posebook App

2012-01-09T21:20:00.002-05:00

Character Designer Stephen Silver released an app for the iPhone and iPad called, Posebook. He has different actors, male and female, posing in costume. These are drawings I did based off the app. The first one is a gangster, then others are pirates.

Elf Drawing

2012-01-09T21:12:00.003-05:00

I had the idea for my 2011 Holiday card in early November. I had done a few sketches of the character before I finalized it. So here are some of the development sketches:

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-09T18:06:00.002-05:00

I feel that every year at this time I say "I'm going to sketch more in {Enter current year}. Well I was about to say that and scan a few drawings I had done recently and I realized that I did sketch a lot, I just hadn't posted anything. So maybe my New Year's Resolution should be "Post more sketches" (and also sketch more regularly). So prepare to be bombarded with a bunch of sketches!

Happy Holidays

2011-12-22T21:30:00.003-05:00

Another Character

2011-11-18T19:32:00.003-05:00

Another Character I've been working on. These are character poses and also the final design created in Flash with mouth charts

Side, 3/4, Front View

2011-11-17T15:30:00.003-05:00

A character that I've been working on for about a year. These are the finalized views of him with color.

New Sketch

2011-09-30T23:03:00.003-04:00

I sketched this in Photoshop while watching the early 80's movie, Creator. This guy was an extra in a coffee shop scene and I just had to draw him.

Random Sketches

2011-08-31T00:39:00.005-04:00

Bob and Meg drawing

2011-08-14T16:31:00.003-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted! I knew life had gotten busy lately, but I certainly thought I posted a drawing or two over the last couple of months.

Anyway, my brother Bob got married on July 30th to Meg. Months ago, Meg asked me to create a drawing of her and Bob. It was a project that I worked on quite a bit over the last few months. Bob is a big baseball fan and he and Meg live near Washington DC. Bob has a couple seats at Nationals Park for two games a year. Meg has gone often with Bob to games and various baseball events. So this is the piece I came up with for them. Congrats Bob and Meg!

Animation Insider Interview

2011-06-14T03:54:00.002-04:00

I was recently asked to be interviewed by Animation Insider . It was pretty awesome just to be asked to be interviewed.

More Allen Gregory designs

2011-05-23T20:06:00.004-04:00

I was going through an external hard drive I have and found more character designs I created last year for the Allen Gregory pilot. The Talented Lucy Gentry was the color stylist on the pilot (although I did color a few of the characters)

Evolution of a character

2011-05-23T03:08:00.004-04:00

I've been working on this character for a few months. The bottom three are the final character designs. Now I just need to work on new poses.

MORE Zoo Drawings

2011-05-22T22:28:00.004-04:00

I've been digging drawing the giraffes lately, as you probably could tell:

Allen Gregory

2011-05-17T03:19:00.002-04:00

I created character designs for the pilot of Allen Gregory. All of the party guests and most of the kids were my designs. I also designed the Gore/Lieberman poster.

New Zoo Drawings

2011-05-13T17:35:00.001-04:00

A few new sketches

2011-03-24T02:35:00.002-04:00

Random Drawings

2011-03-16T03:19:00.006-04:00

I know I just recently posted a bunch of sketches, but I have been sketching quite a bit this year. I just never got around to scanning them. So here's a bunch.

The top two are sketches I did while watching Wall Street 2

Zoo Drawings

2011-03-12T19:58:00.006-05:00

I went drawing at the zoo the other day. I tried a few different things. First I drew mostly with marker. Second, I attempted to caricature the animals (I felt I was most successful with the giraffes).

Some sketches from this past weekend travelling

2011-03-03T02:51:00.004-05:00

Storyboard Portfolio

2011-02-02T11:48:00.012-05:00

More Flash Sketches

2010-12-02T14:53:00.004-05:00

Random Flash sketches from yesterday

I'm a fan of the new show "Raising Hope", so I did a caricature of the dad on that show, Garret Dillahunt

Long time, no post

2010-11-12T20:26:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's been that long since I last posted. I sketched a decent amount over the last few months, I just hadn't taken the time to scan and post them. Anyway, here's a sketch I did in Flash on some down time.

Across the Universe

2010-06-03T02:49:00.005-04:00

After watching Blue Velvet, Rebecca and I watched Across the Universe. Here are some sketches I did while watching that movie.

Blue Velvet

2010-06-03T02:43:00.004-04:00

The other night I was watching Blue Velvet in respect to Dennis Hopper. I did a few sketches while watching it. All I have to say is "Yep, that's a human ear alright".

Jury Duty Sketches

2010-06-03T02:24:00.005-04:00

I had to adhere to my civic duty on Tuesday and wait around the Los Angeles County Courthouse all day praying that my name wouldn't be chosen to sit on a jury. Thankfully, my prayers were answered. There were plenty of characters in the assembly room so I drew a few of them.

My short, Shadow Puppet starring Bruce and George

2010-05-16T16:29:00.004-04:00

This is a short I've been working on for years. I redesigned the main characters and changed the story a bit.
I haven't added any sound to it. I'm hoping people that view it will give me their honest opinion. Can you tell what is happening without sound? Does the pace seem alright? Is there something that I can add to explain things better?
I'm open to any ideas or opinions to making a great short. Thanks!

Random Sketches

2010-05-02T19:51:00.006-04:00

Here are some random sketches I made over the last month. The places vary from Priscilla's Cafe in Burbank (Thursday Sketch Club), the racetrack, the mall, and the zoo:

Me, pastel and a model wearing a hat

2010-04-14T04:13:00.007-04:00

I was trying something different for this class session, just using pastel and maybe some pencil for fine detail on the face. I like what I got out of it and I'd like to do more of it in the future.
The models hat was more of a fedora, but with what she was wearing I felt like she needed a big hat, much like Audrey Hepburn would wear

More Costumed Gestures

2010-04-14T03:58:00.004-04:00

This was the third to last class at LAAFA. The model was dressed like a 1950's housewife:

She didn't dress at all in a bikini, but this was her pose. I just thought she looked like she was sunbathing.

She didn't have a coat in this pose, but I felt like she needed one... she looked so cold!

NATIVE AMERICANS! (I decided to make this more PC)

2010-03-21T01:28:00.003-04:00

More drawings from Mark McDonnell's Costume Gesture Sketching class at LAAFA:

My ladies

2010-03-16T01:37:00.002-04:00

Some lady characters I've been working on:

ROBOT INVASION!

2010-03-13T14:40:00.004-05:00

The other night, I just wanted to draw robots. So here is what I came up with. I plan on drawing more soon:

I thought of this as a bad-ass Magic Screen

I was drawing this as a Nerd Robot

Caricatures while watching the tube

2010-02-27T19:04:00.004-05:00

These are all caricatures I came up with while watching Couples Retreat on DVD:

This is just a background character in the movie.

A caricature of Faizon Love

Both of these were of Vince Vaughn

And finally of Jean Reno (aka the Professional)

Cleaned up caricatures

2010-02-27T18:57:00.002-05:00

Besides cleaning up the costume gestures from my Sunday class, I've also been cleaning up some caricatures from John Quinn's class at LAAFA last semester.

I previously posted the rough caricatures of these drawings on my blog

More Costume Gestures

2010-02-24T04:39:00.005-05:00

Here are a few princesses from the same Costume Gesture class:

Costume Gesture Sketching Class

2010-02-24T04:13:00.003-05:00

I'm taking another class at LAAFA, this time taught by instructor Mark McDonnell . I'm really enjoying the class and feel that I'm making even more leaps and bounds with my drawings.

Below are from my first day of class. I have also included the cleaned up drawings. This is a first for me, because I usually never clean up my gestures.
Please let me know what you think!

Christmas Travels

2010-01-03T20:32:00.006-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Here are some sketches I did at the airport while traveling to Michigan and back.
The Saturday before we left, Rebecca and I attended a Princess and the Frog panel. Animator Randy Haycock was there and he was asked what they look for in animators at Disney. He said, not only to draw people, but draw a story. When drawing a girl on a cell phone, he wants to know who she is talking to on the other line and what they're talking about in a single drawing. For the first time I felt like I had an honest answer from someone at Disney. Usually I would get the same thing over and over "Just keep drawing" or "Observe and draw what you see". So here are some drawings I did. Some are drawings telling a story and others are caricatures of the people I saw, taking what I learned in my caricature class and putting it to use.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

2009-12-20T23:21:00.003-05:00

The other day I was watching the MST3K episode of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I started doodling this guy in Photoshop. I'm continuing to work on it, but wanted to display some progress with it. So far I'm happy with what I've done.

Caricature Class

2009-12-17T04:50:00.005-05:00

This fall I took a ten week caricature drawing and painting class at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts (LAAFA). It was a really enjoyable class and I feel like I was scratching the surface. John Quinn was the instructor and he's a super talented guy. One thing that I did realize while taking the class is that I still have a lot to learn with painting. I signed up for a Color Design class starting in January at Art Center. I believe this class will help me out with my painting skills and I hope to take John's class again sometime later this year.

So here are some of the pieces I made in the class:

This was the last drawing of my first day in the class.

These two are from the second day. I feel like I was definitely improving.

I was really struggling exaggerating this guy. This was the last drawing of the night. I know it looks like a Hirschfeld drawing, but I'm really proud of it.

Another drawing I'm proud of.

This was a tonal drawing, just using black and white conte.

This was my first painting in the class and I feel like the most successful of the four I made. Probably because I was using a limited palette.

Christmas Card

2009-12-15T05:35:00.005-05:00

I created our Christmas Card this year. Here's some of the development I did just for the card. I'll post the final card as soon as I start mailing it out (I know I'm such a tease)

Early thumbnails. Originally I was going to set it in a winter scene (the people surrounding the thumbnails are just doodles).

I had an epiphany and set it on the sunny Southern California beach instead. This is still rough, but it's coming together.

Rebecca suggested changing the snowman into a sand castle.

Here are some rough drawings of just the kids in the card. The boy is a caricature of me. The girl is a caricature of Rebecca. The boy building the sand castle is a caricature of our roommate, Shep.

This is my final rough. Stay tuned for the final card... or maybe just look in your mailbox :D .

Sketches

2009-12-15T05:29:00.005-05:00

Last week was my last day of my caricature class at LAAFA (my instructor, John Quinn, is considering calling it "Creative Portraiture" the next time he teaches the class).
I learned a great deal taking that class and I'm thinking about taking it again in the future. Here are some sketches I did outside of class, but were clearly influenced with what I had learned. I plan on posting some of my better drawings and paintings that I created in class on my blog within the next week.

Christmas Posts

2009-12-15T05:27:00.003-05:00

Here are a bunch of heads I created for my Dummy character for the short I'm reworking

Ricky Gervais Show

2009-11-08T03:09:00.003-05:00

Ricky Gervais was on David Letterman Friday night. They showed a clip of the new show that we're working on. I still have no idea when the show will air on HBO.

It was great to see the clip, but for some reason it looked clunky at times and the audio was off. I'm sure it'll be fixed before it airs.

And yet another

2009-10-09T20:54:00.001-04:00

A caricature of myself I did without looking in a mirror. I don't know why I have such a tough time caricaturing myself.

Another one

2009-10-09T19:11:00.003-04:00

I'm drawing these on a cintiq in Flash... quick stuff that I'm putting some color to.

Flash Sketch

2009-10-09T18:32:00.001-04:00

Killing time at work today

Cat Designs

2009-10-05T04:23:00.004-04:00

Since I updated some cat designs I had done awhile ago (and added some new poses as well), I figured now might be a good time to update the look of my blog as well.

Dummy Designs

2009-10-05T03:22:00.003-04:00

So here are my new designs for the short I started in college. I'm re-boarding the short as well. I'm hoping to have it done late '10 - early '11 (fingers crossed).

Little Boy in Awe

2009-06-26T16:07:00.004-04:00

I just finished this illustration. It's something I've been working on over the last few months whenever I had time.

I call him the Used Car Salesman

2009-05-28T15:01:00.003-04:00

Designed this character the other day while posting stuff to the server

Priest Rabbi and Minister

2009-04-10T00:35:00.002-04:00

This is a short we did for Sony Television. I was the lead storyboard artist and flash animator on it:

From Crackle: A Priest, A Rabbi, and A Minister Walk Into a Bar

Grandpa Apel

2008-12-21T17:29:00.002-05:00

My Grandfather passed away in mid-October. The entire Apel Family used to take summer vacations in Holland, Michigan. My Dad and my uncles had told me stories of when they were younger, my Grandfather used to sit on the beach wearing a pith helmet and carrying a pair of binoculars to check out the girls sunbathing. He would tell my Dad and his brothers and sisters that they were not allowed to call him "Dad" on the beach, he was to be called "Rich Uncle George". I loved that story about him and I wanted to commemorate it in a drawing. This is that finished drawing that I gave to my Grandmother and my parents at Thanksgiving time:

Christmas present to anyone who looks at my blog

2008-12-19T06:46:00.003-05:00

Hi Folks

Sorry it has been so long. Here's some doodles I did in Sketchbook Pro on the Cintiq at work:

Creepy Clown

2008-09-11T02:22:00.002-04:00

I had to buy a bag of these cheese puffs at Albertson's the other day, just because the clown on the packaging is SOOooooo creepy. The company that makes the cheese puffs is called Payaso. They were on sale, I think because people were just too scared of the crazy clown to buy them.

Post Labor Day

2008-09-05T03:49:00.003-04:00

The last month has been pretty hectic for me. I had plenty of people visiting me here in LA, I met some great new friends, I ended a job and started a new one. So far I'm looking forward to what the next few months might bring. I'm hoping that with all these new changes I'll find more time to work on more personal projects. For now though, here's just some sketches I came up with a few days ago:

Update on my website

2008-08-04T15:05:00.002-04:00

I finally updated my portfolio pieces on my website. I kept putting it off and finally late last night (or should I say early this morning?), I decided to finally do it. If you're interested in checking them out, just click on the link to my website on the right.

Comic Con '08

2008-07-28T00:47:00.004-04:00

I really only drew while I was sitting in the Ralph Bakshi discussion. He had some pretty entertaining stories. I kept drawing his hands, because he's got these big sausage fingers. I think I remember hearing or reading a story by John K. talking about Bakshi's big hands. He was definitely right, I just wish I was a bit closer to get better detail.

Late Night Drawings

2008-07-21T00:03:00.005-04:00

I haven't drawn for myself in over a week, so I decided to pick up the ol' pad and pencil around 2am last night. In fact lately I do most of my drawing late at night. It seems that's the only time I can find to do it.
The drawings below are in the exact order that I drew them. The second and third drawing were inspired by Harold Lloyd shorts that I was watching.
My favorite of the bunch is the third from the bottom. It's funny because I think it looks like my interpretation of a Lars Edwards drawing (if you want to know who Lars is, find the link to his site on the right).

Creatures and characters

2008-06-25T06:11:00.005-04:00

Been in the mood to draw a lot of creatures lately... here's some of my latest and some other random people:

Creature portraits

2008-06-10T06:48:00.004-04:00

I was in the mood to draw some creatures, something I hadn't done in a long time. I'm pretty happy with them. I think I may continue with it and see where I go with it. Maybe even finish some up with some color.

Character sketches

2008-06-07T14:38:00.005-04:00

Pierre Cerrato, Dave Stone and I have been talking about doing a short for two years now. We know we want to do it, but it's just a matter of all finding the time to work on it together. Now it's even harder, since both Stone and I are on the west coast and Pierre is in Atlanta. We will get it done though.
I created some character designs for the main character the other day. Many of these won't be used, but I was trying to get a feel of the character's attitude.

New Reel

2008-06-07T14:35:00.002-04:00

I posted a brand new reel. Check it out on my website, www.optionjoe.com or just click on the link to the right.

In LA

2008-05-10T01:59:00.005-04:00

Hey folks

I'm officially a California resident and I just went to the Marc Davis lecture at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Man it got me excited to draw. Not only did the panel (Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, Pete Docter, and James Baxter) have some amusing stories and clips to share, Andreas also pulled out a stack of drawings from the nine old men. He had some early drawings up to some of their last theatrical drawings. It definitely was inspiring and just proved the fact that I can also grow as an artist/animator in the years ahead.
They are also opening an exhibit of animation art and we got to see a preview of it. Some great artwork, from Mary Blair Alice and Cinderella pieces, to Maurice Noble layouts, to Gay Purr-ee model sheets, to development stuff from Warners (Animals) and Disney (Jekyll and Hyde). Very cool and it opens officially next week FOR FREE!
I'm excited to meet and see more amazing animation folks out here in the near future.

End of a sketchbook

2008-03-29T02:15:00.005-04:00

We had a good run ol' friend. I even used some of your pages double sided (something I rarely do). I have to move on to someone else though. So long dear sketchbook and I'm sure to look upon you from time to time... cheers.

These are some sketches that I did at LAX

I really liked how these two guys were conversing. The guy on the left was very energetic and in the guy in the right's face most of the time and the guy on the right was just laid back and listening.

I saw this fat kid in a HUGE sombrero with a backpack on just twisting back and forth. I really would like to do some kind of painting or animation with it. Simple, but funny.

This old guy was great. It's not often you see people at the airport dressed up, but this guy was wearing a blazer. He's definitely old school.

These were sketches I did at Borders today

This is actually a sketch I did at LAX, but I really wanted to make a drawing of this dude I saw at Borders in Glendale. He just looked so jovial and into the book he was reading. He was obviously too large for the chair he was sitting in as well and was WAY too dressed for winter, especially when it was like 60 degrees outside.

I was flipping through the channels before I went to borders and I came across the univision or telemundo version of Family Feud. This guy is inspired by the dad of one of the families on the show.

Kiko

2008-03-17T17:56:00.003-04:00

In late October of 2007, my friend Dustin Bocks called me up asking me if I'd be interested in working on a pilot. The show is called Kiko and it's based off a children's book Rhombus Creative, the company Dustin works for, has published and intends to make into a series.
I said yes and pulled together a team of five, Ashley Burke, Eric Cerda, Pierre Cerrato, and Mike Macnerald. We started producing the pilot the very end of December. I was the animation director, while Dustin directed us from California. Eric and I animated the characters in Flash and created the digital set-up. Ashley and Mike created the backgrounds. Ashley and Pierre did all of the compositing, while Pierre did final composite and edit. We worked off of Dustin's animatics and character designs he created off the book. We had it completed in just over a month. It was a fun project to work on and I think it came out great! You can check it out on at this site:

Kiko

Dustin and another guy even created a cute little game working off of run/fly cycles Eric and I did, and they used Mike Mac's bgs, making a 3D environment.

It's already being discussed to be made into a series. Check it out and enjoy.

HEY!!!!

2008-03-13T23:04:00.004-04:00

Wow, it's been AWHILE..... Well I went to life drawing tonight. Something I haven't done since last summer. I'm really happy with how most of my drawings came out. Here's a few of them that I really like.

Early Morning Doodles

2007-11-10T00:04:00.000-05:00

One night I couldn't sleep at all, so I decided to just sketch on my Wacom tablet using Sketchbook pro. Here are the sketches I came up with. The top one is exactly how I was feeling.

Zoo Drawing and Boozer Doodle

2007-11-09T16:40:00.001-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted.....

In Sept., a couple of friends of mine and myself went to Zoo Atlanta to do some animal drawing. It was great weather and we got a lot of drawing in.

Boozer Doodle is ALWAYS a great time. These are drawings from this past Tuesday:

This is the Musical Chair drawing. I started it, and three other people took over, each at 5 min. intervals. I thought this one ended up quite fun.

Window Seat

2007-08-29T08:53:00.000-04:00

The last project I worked on at Radical Axis. All six of the shorts are finally on the comedy central website.
These are the three that I worked on the most. Basically it was myself and one other animator coming up with all of the poses and animating them in a limited style. Missy Feaster and I were a team, and Jason Shwartz and Eric Cerda were the other team. They animated three different episodes. I think Missy was out of town for the Cat Lady episode, because Jason and I pretty much animated that one ourselves. The teams would help each other out when needed, so you might see all of our names on a few of the credits.

Borders Sketches

2007-07-21T02:57:00.001-04:00

I went to Border's tonight, forgetting Harry Potter was being released at midnight. At first, I thought it was going to be too busy and I wouldn't have a place to sit and draw people, but a lot of people were busy with the activities they had going for the Harry Potter crowd. Here's some of the sketches I did tonight (I'm cheating a little because one page is actually from a few weeks ago).

Random Doodles

2007-07-12T00:25:00.001-04:00

I was watching the DVD "Life of Mammals" and was inspired to draw a Pompous Porpoise.

On that same DVD, I froze an image of a three-toed sloth, and this was my interpretation of him. I'm pretty proud of it.

Another drawing I'm proud of, the character playing the clarinet, was inspired by a someone I saw on TV. The dude behind him is inspired by the guitarist/vocalist for the band The Iguanas whom I saw perform at the Earl a few weeks ago.

I was flipping through the stations and Roseanne was on Nick at Nite. This is a caricature of John Goodman having an important talk to Becky. In the corner of this drawing I was attempting to draw a caricature of Becky.

SENIORS RULE!!!!

More Boozer Doodle

2007-06-17T02:49:00.000-04:00

Just in case you wanted to see more of Boozer Doodle, here's a link to the pics that the folks of Vortex take of us drawing:
Boozer Doodle Pics

Here's a pic of the back of my newly shaved head:

And if you EVER want to see a GREAT show, see Los Straitjackets the next time they come to your town. Imagine four guys wearing mexican wrestling masks, black suits, while playing 60's/Surf Rock. Just a great show!! GO SEE!!!!!!!

More Thursday Night Sketches

2007-06-15T13:51:00.001-04:00

Here are some Random Sketches from the thursday night sessions. Obviously, they're not all from the same night:

I think I got frustrated with drawing his hand here, so that's why I decided to devote some time to just drawing his hands and feet, in the second drawing:

More Boozer Doodle

2007-06-15T13:34:00.000-04:00

Here are more sketches from Boozer Doodle:

These next two are Group Sketches. 20 minute drawings, that 4 people are given 5 minutes to draw on. I started these sketches:

Boozer Doodle

2007-06-07T01:38:00.000-04:00

Boozer Doodle is a lot of fun.

Sketching.

Drinking.

Burlesque Dancers.

Tator Tots.

Can life get better? I submit that it can NOT!

For a while now, I've been trying to teach myself to draw woman sexier. Boozer Doodle gives me that opportunity and I feel like I'm getting more successful at it.

Zoo Sketches...

2007-06-07T01:28:00.000-04:00

I had planned a day of sketching with friends at the zoo... sadly no one showed up (sigh)... oh well I still got a lot of sketching done before the HOTlanta heat kicked in..

These Orangutans were really cute. The little one was really active, so I wanted to draw his poses as much as I possibly could.

It's been a while...

2007-06-07T01:02:00.000-04:00

And I have a lot of drawings to show. So here goes...

These are from the Thursday figure drawings classes...
I have more to show in future posts, but I wanted to get these out first

Rough sketch

2007-01-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

Although I don't think my colored Sci-fi Dog is technically "finished", I tend to prefer looking at rough sketches versus finished drawings. I just feel they're so much more alive. So I thought I'd post the rough drawing.

Sketching on the Cintiq

2007-01-26T17:04:00.000-05:00

I was done with work early, so I just decided to sketch on the cintiq in alias sketchbook. It took me a little while to warm up to the program, which I'm still having problems with the things it can and cannot do, but overall, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Sci-Fi Dog for RadAx Blog (hey that rhymes!)

2007-01-26T02:15:00.000-05:00

This is a drawing I did for the new Radical Axis blog:

Radical Axis Blog

Each month, someone will come up with a new "assignment" for everyone at our studio who wants to participate. This month it was Sci-fi Dogs. We can interpret it anyway we want. This is what I came up with. Check out the blog to see the other fun drawings!

New Post... Sketches not so new

2007-01-22T01:50:00.000-05:00

I'm trying a bit harder to post sketches more frequently. The figure drawing sketches are from a few weeks ago. Just looking at them again, I realize how much I need to get out drawing more often.

I mentioned in an earlier post, that I had created a painting of myself as a Muppet probably around 10 years ago. So here it is. I have no idea why I never finished it. I think it was for an art class, and then I decided to go in a different direction.

Way too long since my last post

2007-01-16T14:36:00.000-05:00

I realize that's it's been months since I've last posted. So I thought I should just post SOMETHING. These are a couple of caricatures I did. The top one is me and the bottom one is my friend Jason.

Freak Show!!! (and some sketches)

2006-10-07T01:49:00.000-04:00

Well I hope you all had a chance to see the Premiere episode of Freak Show on Comedy Central this past Wednesday. If not, Comedy Central is re-running it like crazy, and they're playing it again this Sunday at Midnight.
I animated a few scenes throughout the episode, but the one I'm most proud of is the "pig" scene. I won't say anything more.
Here's a scene I animated that was deleted from the episode (click on the Mrs. Hartsdale Minute):

Mrs. Hartsdale Minute

(There's barely any animation in the scene, but I thought you'd like to check it out anyway).
Some of the folks I work with and myself, had the opportunity to go to NYC to the Comedy Central premiere party of Freak Show. It was a blast. We got to party and watch the show with the creators (and also some of the voices) David Cross and Jon Benjamin, and some of the other voices as well, including Janeane Garafolo the voice of the Bearded Clam (Wet Hot American Summer, Truth About Cats and Dogs, Reality Bites), Brian Stack the voice of the World's Tallest Nebraskan (writer and performer on Late Night w/Conan O'Brien), and Jon Glaser the voice of Log Cabin Republican (writer and performer on Late Night w/Conan O'Brien).
I don't have any pictures from the party yet, but hopefully I'll get my hands on some soon and I'll post them here.

Here are some sketches from the life drawing class last Thursday:
This sketch I'm most proud of (2 minute pose)

2 Minute poses

2 minute pose

1 minute pose

I'm not going to be posting again for another week or so. Taking a trip to Michigan. In the meantime, check out this blog:

Marmaduke Explained

Hilarious!
Later... Joe

More Life Drawing

2006-09-26T01:40:00.000-04:00

These are a couple drawings from the Life Drawing session two weeks ago. I'm hoping to go again this week.

Sketch post AND a couple reviews

2006-09-25T01:48:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, some of my co-workers and I took part in the Sketchcrawl that was happening around the world. Still not knowing Atlanta well enough, I could only think of a couple locations that were not only free, but had a good amount of people and animals to sketch.
First we went to Piedmont Park. There was the threat of thunderstorms all day, but we never saw a drop. Instead it was 85 degree weather with plenty of sun. It really was a great day to be in the park and not only that, the Skyhoundz Disc Dogs competition was going on. Having only seen Frisbee catching dogs on TV or in the movie, Flight of the Navigator, I thought this was really cool. Unfortunately, I was more caught up in watching the dogs competing, than actually drawing them. I did sketch a little, and these are the few drawings I thought were ok:

Next we went to the Lenox Square Mall Food Court to sketch some folks. I really felt like I was able to draw a little better here, maybe it's because I wasn't too distracted.

These first two guys were sitting near each other. The old man, was intently eating a fruit cup or some pudding.

This guy had a great face. The second drawing I really felt I caricatured him well.

On Friday, a bunch of us went to see Jet Li's Fearless

I've never been a huge fan of martial arts films, but I do enjoy the fight sequences in most of them. I also should say I have never been a huge fan of Jet Li either. His acting is usually very stone-face and stiff.
Jet Li's Fearless brought a whole new light to how I feel about these films and of Jet Li.
First off, Jet Li can actually act. He showed a wide range of emotions and I believed every one of them.
Secondly, this movie has a really good story, although I felt the title of it was a bit odd. The story centers on an actual person, Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li), who created the Jin Wu Sports Federation. Yuanjia fought the western influence that was happening to chinese culture, by simply trying to unify the chinese people.
The reason why I feel that the title is odd, is that it's Jet Li playing an actual person. Do we call it Mel Gibson's Braveheart or Jim Carrey's Man on the Moon? I think it's enough for the studios to say that the actor is the star of it, they don't have to declare it as if Jet Li IS the film.
Nonetheless, it was really a well-made film, with great fight sequences and telling a story of the history of a person and culture I know very little about. I would definitely recommend this film.

Ok, my last review is actually for a book. One of my favorite movies of all time is Robert Altman's "The Player" (I should note that Robert Altman's name is not included in the title of the movie, he was the director of it). Michael Tolkin, who wrote the original novel and the screenplay for the movie, has written a new book where we revisit the character 15 years later.

Although I felt that the book's design was a little too simple for my taste, when I saw it in the bookstore I just had to buy it. Overall, I'm glad I did, There were some great moments in it and I really enjoyed just reading more about the characters so many years later. I do have to say, the majority of the book, read more like a film about a dysfunctional family, rather than the story of a Hollywood executive and the dark secrets he keeps. It's even strange that he welcomes sharing these secrets to many people, something that he would've never done before. I think that was the point of the story though, telling the story of a man accepting many of his mistakes and coming of age in his mid-50's. If you're a fan of the movie "The Player" like I am, you might want to pick up the book, it's a quick and easy read, but with some fun, dark moments in it that actually made laugh out loud.

Ok, enough of my babbling. I expect to have a few more sketch posts up later this week. Until then, take care!

Insomnia and Me

2006-09-20T04:42:00.000-04:00

I've been having a really tough time sleeping lately, so here's some more of my late night drawings.

I really liked this drawing, simply because it looks different from the style I usually draw in.

I drew a full figure picture of this cowboy, but I really wasn't happy with his legs or feet. It's definitely a drawing that I think I might rework and see if I can tell more of a story with it.

Years ago, when I was going to Wayne State University in Detroit, I did a caricature of myself as a Muppet for an art project. So this is what I feel I look like today as a Muppet. When I'm back in Michigan in October, I'll look for my original caricature, so I can post that as well.

Movie Reviews

2006-09-18T00:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I watch A LOT of movies. I figured I'd start doing movie reviews in between my sketch posts (I kind of got the idea from my friends Ernie and Gabby... separate conversations). So anyway, here goes....

First up.. Brother Bear

Ok, yes I rented it. I liked the first one, mostly because my friend Tom Dow did layouts for the film, and gave me and Stephanie a tour of the studio while they were making the picture, but I also liked it for the solid animation, and simply because it featured the McKenzie Brothers, aka Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, as the Moose Brothers, Rutt and Tuke.
Well I was happy to see that they returned again and were featured more prominently into the story. Not only did Thomas and Moranis return, but they now have female moose love interests, played by fellow SCTV alumni, Andrea Martin and Catherine O'hara. I have to say, that's inspired casting. Rutt and Tuke remained funny and true to the characters they originated on SCTV, so many years ago.
As for the rest of the story... Blah. The Direct-To-Video filmmakers decide to introduce to us a female character, Nita, that Kenai (the Native-American that was magically turned into a bear in the first movie, and remains a bear in this one) fell in love with, when he was a child. I won't bore you with the story, but Nita (Mandy Moore) and Kenai renew a love they had together years ago.... BUT HE'S A BEAR AND SHE'S HUMAN!!!!! Just a tad weird.
Patrick Dempsey (Can't Buy Me Love, Loverboy ... oh yeah and that show Grey's Anatomy), is now the voice of Kenai, and well he sounds NOTHING like Joaquin Phoenix.
The animation is still solid, thanks to the Australia studio (that Disney decided to shut down last year).
I really don't have a "rating system" as of yet, but I'd definitely say, don't bother with this one.

Ok, next movie... The Last Kiss

A somewhat slow moving dramedy, but I really did care for the characters and connected with some of them. If you haven't seen the previews, Zach Braff plays a 29 year old that has been dating Jacinda Barrett for three years, and she is 3 months pregnant. As everyone in their small universe suddenly finds their relationships deteriorating, Braff reevaluates his own life when a 20 year old college student, played by Rachel Bilson, hits on him at his friend's wedding, as his pregnant girlfriend is not far away.
Although it's hard to believe that so many relationships can go to shit all at the same time, with the magic of movies, we can suspend some disbeliefs.
I definitely was cringing over stupid mistakes that characters were making, but I think at some time in everyone's life we are all put in a position where we question ourselves if we should or shouldn't, and aren't quick to rationalize the implications that may come after.
There are many truths that the story tells, and I think that this movie will really only speak to people in their mid to late 20's and older, middle to upper-middle class.
Overall, I definitely find it worth seeing, but it's really not a good "date" movie, no matter if it's your first date, or you're in a "healthy" relationship, unless you're ready to talk about relationships immediately after.
Not a bad movie to see in the theaters, but it can wait to be rented.

Ok, so those are my movie reviews. I'll have more in the future, and maybe even a book review or two, since I also bought a couple books today as well.

Check for a sketch post tomorrow... Later...

Late Night Drawings

2006-09-13T23:16:00.000-04:00

I'm REALLY happy with these two drawings that I did late last night (and when I mean late, I mean around 3am).

Barnes and Noble again

2006-09-13T01:54:00.000-04:00

I went to Borders tonight to go drawing, unfortunately they're refurbishing their cafe, so my usual spot was unavailable. Besides that, there was barely any people in the store (probably because they couldn't get any coffee). So instead I went to Barnes and Noble. Their cafe just doesn't have a good seating arrangement, so I just wasn't able to sketch as many people. Anyway, I'm glad I'm going out sketching more again.

Zoo Drawings

2006-09-11T01:37:00.000-04:00

So I went to Zoo Atlanta today with Ralph and Stone (it's not the Atlanta Zoo... it's Zoo Atlanta... don't know why..). Anyway, it's a decent zoo, too bad my sketching hasn't been too decent lately. Here are some of my better sketches from the day. The Orangutan, Allen, is my favorite.

From the Reptile house. The Komodo Dragon was enormous.

The Rhino was pretty cool, but it barely stayed in one place and he constantly was hiding itself from the crowd.

So this is the Orangutan, Allen. There's so much character in his face. He reminded me of Harry from Harry and the Hendersons and Chewbacca.

This was a mother gorilla with her back to me, she was holding the newborn baby that was just born at the Zoo in July.

A Kangaroo head. It was really cool how close we were to the Kangaroos.

The lemurs were cool, but we were standing above them, and there's an annoying fence you have to look through, which really strains your eyes after awhile.

The first exhibit when you walk into the Zoo, are the flamingoes. I was drawing these, while Ralph was attempting to get an iced coffee.

Monthly Blog (hopefully the next post will be sooner)

2006-08-21T00:27:00.000-04:00

These are sketches from the airport, whether it was waiting to pick up someone or on my way to or from Vegas:

So here are some random pics from my sketchbook:

These are sketches of Gabby's dog, Latte, that I was trying from off the top of my head. The top drawing of him, I feel like I know what he's thinking:

Condom Cartoon

2006-08-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

My friend Gabby and I came up with this cartoon on a long car ride after reading sex advice columns in Marie Claire and Glamour magazine. We went to the bar that night and I drew the boards out on bar napkins. When I got home, I keyed out the entire cartoon. This is the first pencil test. I still need to tweak out the timing. I also intend to put an intro and ending for the cartoon and finally finish it up in flash. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tW1I_oeVMU

I guess it's turned into monthly postings

2006-07-07T01:38:00.000-04:00

Anyway, here's some new sketches. I'm hoping to get back to the Life Drawing session on Thursdays soon. Although it looks like I'm going to the zoo this Saturday, so i should get some good stuff out of there as well.