TOM B. Sketchbook drawings

It's always hard for me to admit this: I don't like drawing in sketchbooks. I think it's because I'm a "large drawer". I draw things on the big side. When I was animating at Disney I would always need to go to the layout department and see if they could tweak a camera fielding larger because I had animated past it too much. Big movements, big drawings- I needed room! Same with sketchbooks. I have a medium sized one now and it's just a little too small for me. I keep going into the gutter with my drawings or my hand is falling off the right side (I'm right handed). I've seen a couple things online that have inspired me to try again. One was a blog by Jeremy VanHooser where he posted some fun sketchbook drawings. In his post, he mentioned that he keeps his sketchbook by his scanner so that while he's waiting on a scan he does some sketching. That's a good idea, but it can turn into not getting any work-or scans- done really easy. The other thing I'm doing is something I learned from by buddy/biz partner Rob- he does sketches "outside his sketchbook" on scraps of paper and if he likes them, he pastes them into his sketchbook. That helps fight the dreaded, " I have to do everything great in this sketchbook" syndrome. Also, I need my own encouragement to see a couple of those other sketches (done outside the sketchbook) that I CAN draw sometimes. I've also read blogs by some of those crazy talented Canadians (Bobby Chiu and others) where they say their whole studio takes an hour or so and does "warm up" drawings (which they post on their blog). That's another kick in the bottom. I don't know how Jeremy and Bobby get much work done though, I never feel like I have that kind of time I can take away from the deadline work. Okay, I'm just complaining now. Above are drawings from my sketchbook. I hope you like them.

EDIT: When Rob saw this post, he slide over this drawing illustrating his version of me drawing too big. It also has the added "comment" on what I like to draw in my sketchbook. Love it.


EDIT 2: I did up a quicky color version of the Superhero above. I tried some new charcoal 'brushes' in Photoshop that Cedric Hohnstadt (sp?) suggested. Kinda fun and quick.

Goodbye OLLIE JOHNSTON

As I'm sure you've heard all over the webisphere, Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney's "Nine Old Men" of animation, has died. A lot of good memorials have already been written, but I just wanted to add a thought and at least acknowledge his passing on this blog. A good retrospective is on Cedric Honstadt's blog (look to the links on the left). Here's a personal anecdote:

When I was at CalArts, a small group of us wanted to create an art show, just before Christmas, where you could buy donated art from students and industry vets with the money going to a charity. We called it the "Winter" show, which was the theme for any new art that was created. (This is a long story that I'm trimming down, it really was a cool show we put on in a very short time with some incredible art and support from the industry.) At any rate, we were bold animation students that had fire in our hearts to create a special show for a good cause. And we had connections via our instructors. A dangerous combination. So, we were able to get Frank and Ollie's phone number and ask them if they would donate some artwork for our show. As I've heard so many times before from others, they did not turn down our request. We were putting this together in, like, a week or something and had never done it before so we didn't have the proper forms or paperwork to even prove we had a show planned. They excepted on good faith. The cool part (for us) was that they said they were working on their next book (which was "Too Funny For Words", this was around 1988, btw) so could we meet them at the Disney Research Library on Disney's main lot. Could we? I can't remember who all went on that trip to the Disney studio, but I know we crammed as many fanboy art students as would fit in the car! We got there and were escorted back to the research library where Frank and Ollie were combing through ORIGINAL DISNEY ART to find stuff to include in their book. (This was before the Animation Library was set up, so this was the little Dave Thomas run Library that is more of a "museum" now.) They knew we were gonna geek out just meeting them and they took the time to show some of the art they were looking at too- just to watch our faces! They were cool and very used to Disney and all that wonderful art obviously, but you could tell they still had a love and appreciation for it. It was personal to them. This is a Ken Anderson. This one's by Hamm. Marc did this one. To them, they saw the artists that did the drawings and fondly remembered those good times and struggles making those films. I hadn't thought of that before that day. I know this story is about both Frank and Ollie, but they were so inseparable, how do you tell a story without both of them? I will say, both of them gave so much and kept on giving to the end! I don't "know" Ollie, I've just met him a few times, but I sure am glad I did. I will always appreciate the fact that he let me and Rob and our other animation buddies stand on his shoulders to create some of the films we did. None of it would have happened without him.

Sadly, I don't remember what Frank and Ollie donated to the auction. I think it was animation roughs (probably throwaways they liked) from one of the films. The experience of meeting them for the first time-in that circumstance-was the memory for me.

The Lord be with your family, Ollie.

(Thanks to Cedric, I stole this photo of Ollie off his blog post.)

TOMO INTERVIEW with Tom, Rob, and Jim Krueger

Hey all. I wanted to (belatedly) inform you that over at the comics news site, "The Pulse", there is an interview about Funnypages Productions/ Zondervan "TOMO" manga graphic novels we are producing. The interview came out well and is very informative.

Go here: http://www.comicon.com/pulse/

You will have to scroll down quite a bit, it came out a week or two ago and we forgot to post about it! I can't seem to get a direct link to it either. There's a bunch of artwork with it also. A couple of the rough sketches are shown above. One is the original designs by Rob and I of the main characters: Hana, Tomo, and Grandfather Jou. The other is a sketch of the villain characters (based on designs by us) by interior art penciler Ariel Padilla. He put all the designs through his "manga style machine" and they came out looking really cool on the other end!

Lastly, is the cover for TOMO #4 which should be coming out this summer or so. Thanks!

RECENT SKETCHES

I rarely sketch in a sketchbook. I wish I did, but I just don't. Part of it is that I usually draw too big, so I don't like being 'hedged in' by binding and pages that end. When I was animating at Disney, more times than not, I would animate the character too big and then I'd have to reduce a stack of drawings on the photocopy machine and repeg it all. There are easier ways to do that in this digital world, but not then. When I get into big, long running projects like we are doing now (storyboards for a feature film), that's when I get the itch to doodle. These are sketches done late at night to "whine down" after doing storyboards all day (and night). Chunky leg girl in the middle was to try a little different body type. These are the things I doodle, like it or not. Superheroes, cartoon animals, and girls.....

Alright....Enough of the sappy,sweet, sugary goodness of puffy clouds and dancing cows!!! We're busy with a few other projects right now and wanted to get something new up on the blog. These are just misc. drawings that I pulled together that were done over the last few weeks or so. A couple are preliminary concepts for client work, but the rest are just doodles. I hope you enjoy them!

NEWish STUFF!

Sorry, we dropped out for a bit there. We got all excited about the website being up and then neglected this blog. We've been finishing up a bunch of larger and smaller projects of late, so nothing too fascinating to show at the second. I thought I'd throw up a couple smaller jobs we've done over the last few months that we don't always show. These are two "music book covers" we created for a local music publishing company. They are covers for music books for musicals small groups can put on for youth groups at a church. One I did, one Rob did. What we like about doing these is the fact that they give us a ton of freedom. We can usually do any kind of style, so we like to play on these a bit. Some, a bit more comic booky, some more simple, some more Disneyish, some something else. Anyway, more stuff soon. Hey, let us know what you think or want to see on this little blog that could.

WOW, We're a REAL COMPANY!

After 4 long years of talking about it, we are proud to announce that we have a NEW WEBSITE!! This is big news since we have never updated our old site in the last 3 or 4 years. Everything on it before wasfrom the first 6 months of our company plus some other odds and ends. EVERYTHING on this new site is NEW. (Okay, maybe a couple favorites are still on there.) There are TWO reels too: one is a general "portfolio" reel on the HOMEPAGE (good luck finding it, we have to fix that) as well as an ANIMATION REEL for the first time ever! Even the most loyal of you to our blog will see projects and artwork that you have never seen before! (Some we shouldn't even show....shhhh!) OKay, go for it! And tell your friends and favorite websites! It's at: www.funnypageprod.com and I think the link on the left should work too!

A BIG thanks to our buddy, Jon Conkling, for designing and creating this great website! You're the best employee we have, Jon!

PS> This is super FRESH, so we are still tweaking and fixing typos (like this blog). Keep coming back to it, it will change this time around!

EDIT: If you haven't looked at the new site since we first posted this; go back now! We fixed a few things on the homepage and ADDED A BUNCH OF NEW ART TO MOST OF THE CATEGORIES! WAHOO! Okay, now it's done. For now.