Sketch Book

Storyboards

Character Design

These are designs for an animated TV show titled The Incredibly Strange World of Johnny Armani. Here are just a handful of characters who appeared in it. It dealt with Johnny Armani and his travels through various seedy dance clubs and the exotic characters that live in that world.

MR FRANKIE

Mr. Frankie is an intimidating looking man who tends bar. he suffered a stroke so half his face has no expression. He has a scary exterior but turns out to be quite a softy who hopes to open a sandwich shop.

ATOM BOMB 

Atom Bomb is a club DJ who also happens to be a vampire. He is dating Johnny Armani's long lost daughter who also works at the club. Atom is not very bright, mispronounces way too many (big) words and reads a LOT of science fiction.

 

Marker Comps

Marker comps are a lot of fun. I work with Prismacolor marker and Prismacolor pencil. I can't believe that a lot of people can't control marker. Some people think that these are watercolor, as if watercolor were more controllable. Is that even a word? I usually begin by skething lightly with pencil, darkening that with some sort of fine tip pen and then coloring with marker. I use both cool and warm grey for the shadows depending on the color of the overal comp and bring out the highlights with colored pencil, white colored pencil and yes, whiteout.

JAWS BOOK

Here is sort of an exploded illustration of the left to right shark from JAWS. Below that is the platform that the shark was attached to which barely allowed it to role back and forth through the water. There is a lot of resistance in water. The boys at Universal never counted on that.

This was created to better illustrate the different layers, parts and hoses that made up the pneumatic shark in a book that I am putting together about the men that worked on JAWS.

USH JAWS ATTRACTION

JAWS Attack opened during the spring of 1976. Here are some marker studies that I did for the book detailing the various sharks (above), colors and layout of the Amity island set.

LOGOS

The Real Archaeologist logos. These were for a show that was pitched for the Discovery Channel. See more under Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

 

TOY DESIGN

Here are a couple of marker comps. The first one is a Goofy plush from the Goofy Movie, below that is Ariel's daughter from The Little Mermaid II. Toy concepts are fun. I've done it a few times. Well, actually I've done it not enough.

ZOOBILEE ZOO

Zoobilee Zoo was a traveling interactive theme park carnival thing with computers and technology and stuff... I think. It was fun to create. I did a mountain full of stuff for something that never got built. That's okay, I never got paid for it. That'll show'em!

Caricature

I have always loved caricature. It's a mystery to me how it works. MAD magazine and Mort Drucker were my first heroes, Disney's Nine Old Men and ultimately the king himself Al Hirschfeld are all influences.

TV SHOWS

Here is the cast of Everybody Loves Raymond. They signed it for me and it's framed in a closet. One day I'll hang it on the wall again.

Below is the cast of the show Yes, Dear. It used to be on CBS before Raymond. I remember that I was going to see them and try to get their autographs but it never happened.
The cast of My Name Is Earl were going to be at the Paley Festival at the Director's Guild. That meant one thing - caricature! My Name Is Earl had a pretty good season one, weird season two and just lost it after that. The cast dashed for the exit when all was said and done. Never got this autographed.

The Big Bang Theory is on CBS. It features four nerds and one hot dumb girl. It's funny. I have this signed by the cast, except for Sheldon -- the dude who is doing that weird Trekkie thing in the background.

CELEBRITY
Dixie Chicks. I was going to see them in a little theatre in LA for the taping of their VH-1 special. Near the end of the show my friend got Natalie Maine's attention. They signed the final version which still hangs in my room. Emily thought her chin was too long. This is one of many studies that I sketched before the final.

George Lucas was at the Paley festival at the Director's Guild on Sunset. After his interview he signed this sketch. I have it framed. The autograph looks like a weird scribble.

Okay, technically they belong in TV Shows, Marshall Dillon and Festus from Gunsmoke. But when was the last time you saw them on TV/ I don't think they're on TV Land anymore. Matt Dillon below them and a handful of celebs including Will Smith and Mel Gibson from a horrible scan. I'll have to do that one again! These are more straight ahead MAD magazine style caricatures. I think that the Gunsmoke and Matt Dillon comps were requested by fans.

Good Day LA is a wacky morning news show here in Los Angeles. This is a study of the three anchors - Dorothy Lucey, Jillian Barberie (Reynolds) and Steve Edwards (two versions).

ORDINARY FOLKS

Here is a caricature for someone that I worked with simply titled Bob. This is what Bob looked like. I think I spent 10 seconds doing this. it shows. Below him are people that I worked with.

This is the first design group that I worked with. I was primarily an illustrator here and did a lot of cool stuff like storyboards, theme park and character design.

This is a group that I did for a newspaper art department that I was part of. They are all gone. Well, actually I think that a couple of them still make ads for the paper, otherwise our jobs were sent overseas. *sigh* I like how I recycled myself.WEDDING INVITE
Here is my wedding invitation. Created it in Illustrator. One of the few times that I used artificial means when I could have used a pen and markers. I was going for a Shag style. I'm not really a fan of Shag but he was doing a whole series of Disneyland art and we were getting married at The Happiest Place on Earth NOT Where Dreams Come True.

Pencil Sketch

I used to draw my dreams when I woke up. Kept a sketchbook of drawings. Later I would write them down and I wrote two screenplays based on dreams. This comp is based entirely on dreamy images.

TOY CONCEPTS

These are a couple of sketches that were created for various booths and displays for Toy Fair back in New York.

These are a couple of Winnie the Pooh sketches that were created for Pooh frames. They never went further than the sketch phase as far as I know.

MARKETING
Various concepts for shoe displays and such from a variety of jobs.

SPACE CENTER BREMEN

Here are concepts for a logo to be used for an indoor theme park called Space Center Bremenin Germany. Since then it has built. Never been there but I'm sure it's cool. 

 

KID INTUITION
The LAUSD started a program in which a kid used a lot of common sense in everyday situations. Oh, and he was a DJ and liked to pose like a gangsta - no lie. Anyway, here is a model sheet of the kid. These poses were actually used in the Kid Intuition book.

WEBSITE

My cousin Franklin (right - Silver Surfer) needed a Marvel comic inspired sketch for his bands website KFD. I started the drawing but never had time to finish it. It may show up in a more complete form soon though. Okay it's not exactly a website, but it's supposed to be on a website.