Queen Gigi

I'm very fortunate to work with a family of talented folks who inspire the hell out of me every day. From the veteran character artists who have seen and done it all, to the designers on my team who immediately took me under their wing and taught me so much of what I now know, to the fresh energy and ridiculously advanced skill of the young interns - there's rarely a day that goes by when I don't learn something new and exciting from them. All of the people I admire at work have not only the amazing technical skill but a love for what they do every day, all while being 100% humble. It really is a quite infectious environment. Not only do we have the fortune of working with a surplus of creative talent, but we are surrounded and supported by awesome project managers who make sure we're organized and on schedule. Frankly, they also keep us from losing our minds when deadlines, meetings, and requests pile up.

After all these years at Disney, I'm finding that inspiration not only comes from the artists and designers (or creatives as we call 'em), but from all the other folks who surround us and keep us in line. I guess I'm just in awe of anyone who is just flat out unbelievable at whatever they do, no matter the skill or profession. The 'queen' in the playing card above is the definition of one of those people. That's Gigi, our Project Manager for the last 3 years. To say that she did an amazing job in that span of time would be an understatement. Not only did she do what PM's do best and solved all of our problems at work but she did the same in our lives as well. Her door was always open if you felt like venting, laughing, or in my case, telling dirty jokes and annoying the hell outta her. What she had to deal with on a daily basis - from juggling projects, to dealing with all the other groups in and out of the company, to making sure we were sane at work and in life was truly inspiring to watch. I know that the example she set definitely rubbed off on a lot of us. Eventually, I think we wore her out with our drama and she has since moved up to Pixar. Seeing as how we can be a bunch of babies every now and then, I really don't blame her, but in the end, we're all lucky to have had her for as long as we did. Not many people like her come through life that often.

Ok, about the card - Gigi was nice enough to lend us her house to use as our poker hall. Even though she didn't play, she still ran the show and kicked us out when we got annoying enough. She has a total of 3 kids - well, one real kid and two corgis who are perched in each arm. Gigi's drink of choice is a Cadillac Margarita (and lots of 'em), hence the crazy double fist action. The card, which is the size of an actual playing card, was her going-away gift from me. I also included a letter with all the dirty jokes I forgot to say just for good measure. The cool thing is, we still get to see her up at Pixar every now and then. I've already got a few new jokes up my sleeve for the next time we meet!

Them Dogs Can Talk!

Here's the rest of the poster series I created for Up. I finally got to see the finished film and to say that I loved it would almost seem like an understatement. It absolutely blew me away which says a lot because one of the perks of working with Disney and Pixar is getting to see the film at various stages of production. To get that access is amazing but at the same time, it's difficult to see the final film with fresh eyes. More often than not, I find myself concentrating on the changes they made rather than the film as a whole. I knew early on that Up was a special film. Even in early storyboard form, it already had all the strong emotional and comedic elements. I guess it was so good that even after round after round of screening it, it really held up and continued to grow and resonate more and more with me. I can't wait to see it again...for the umpteenth time. It's definitely an honor to get to work on a tiny part of the awesomeness called Up.

More UP!

Here's another poster from the Up series. This one features the villain in the film, Charles F. Muntz. The look and tone of the series all came from this one. It was the first one I started and it was the first to get approved. After you get one under your belt, the others fall into place a little more smoothly (knock on wood). I seriously can't wait to see the final film!

That House can Fly!

Over the 10 or so years I've been at this profession, one of the cooler moments definitely came when I got to work with the filmmakers on the style guide for Up, the latest Pixar film. It's always an honor to get to see one of their awesome creations come together from initial story pitches and character sketches, to animation tests and final renders. It takes years and years of hard work and long hours for them to get to the hour and a half or craziness you see on screen. With anything I do for them, I really hope to put in as much effort as I can to do justice to their film. As long as I've been working with them, the pressure's always on to create something that they can appreciate.
With Up, I got to work really closely with their Character Artists Ricky Nierva and Albert Lozano. They went out of their way to make sure I got to the essence of this film and its characters. You definitely can see the passion they have for everything they do and it's inspiring to see. Even Director Pete Docter would always be on hand to throw overlays on top of my individual poses and let me know if i was doing anything out of character or not in line with the story. They have an innate attention to detail and i got a kick out of hearing how they justify everything they do in the film. It was such a positive learning experience and I surely hope I get to do it again.
This time around, I ended up with 6 posters and about 12 character poses for the guide. Here's one Acme Archives offered as an exclusive print at the San Diego Comic-Con last year. Hopefully, I'll get to post the rest as soon as they are made available to the public.
Now, I'm headed over to Party City to snatch up every balloon they have so I can float over the Miller Beer factory and drop into one of those huge pipes into a beer vat. Yup, that's a good way to go.

She Talks in Her Sleep

Of the three Indy films (I haven't watched the 4th yet), I've seen The Last Crusade the most times by far. I think it would have to be my favorite because the relationship between Indy and Henry Sr. is so damn hilarious. The film has all the awesome qualities that makes the series so great: ridiculous action sequences, exotic locales, unbelievable treasure, the vermin of choice, and a hot chick, but the bonus element in Crusade is the side-splitting banter between father and son. Their facial expressions alone are worth watching it over a few times. Especially Henry Sr.'s face when Indy finds out his father also slept with Dr. Schneider.

With the Crusade poster, I also tried to keep the series consistent with a lot of the same criteria I used in the 1st couple of posters. Among them include the limited color scheme, the big head at the top right, the chase scene on the bottom right, the logo down below, the filmed in color banner, and a background silhouette of one of the key settings. I wanted to play up the love connection between the Joneses and Elsa because it plays an important part of the plot so Indy and Elsa are almost equal in scale and you can also make a visual "triangle" between the three characters. Because it's my favorite on the Indy series of films, I really wanted to get as much as I could into this one. The story is dense and so is this poster in comparison to the previous two. I certainly hope you guys dig it!

This poster should be available soon from Acme Archives .

No Ticket!

Ok, this may not look like much at 1st glance, and it isn't, but this here's the beginning of a poster that I've gotten a ton of inquiries about. Yup, that'd be Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the 3rd in a series that I had no idea would even sell. I'm sure glad that the others went over pretty well and I thank all of you who have been waiting around for this one. Hopefully you'll dig it as much as the 1st two and the knowledge that the 3rd one is now on its way will keep the 'where the F is it?' e-mails at bay. The time line on this is a month or two because of prior obligations, but I'll be sure to post the progress as soon as I get into it.

Because it's in chicken scratch form, here's few of the details in the layout: HUGE Professor Henry Jones Sr., Indy galloping on horse, Elsa holding Grail diary, the Grail knight, the Grail tablet, the zeppelin, fighter planes, tanks, the Castle Brunwald, and a bunch of baddies. In the end, the poster composition and color scheme is very similar to the 1st two and should sit side by side with 'em quite nicely. Enjoy!

Welcome to the TokyoDome

Here's a couple of rough drawings for an upcoming poster (no, not Indy, but more on that later) based on a memorable moment in sports. My dad may be the biggest boxing fan I know and he would always get excited for any bouts that would pop on the television, especially the major championship fights. Unlike today, back in the late 80's and early 90's, the heavyweight division was amazing to watch. This was due, in large part, to the unstoppable force known as 'Iron' Mike Tyson. I don't remember ever seeing anyone who annihilated the opposition with such ease than he did on his undefeated road to the heavyweight championship. Anyone who faced him never had a chance and they were considered lucky if they survived the 1st round. We followed his every bout with such anticipation and the expectations of a quick, devastating victory. That all came to a crushing end on February 11th, 1990 when the undisputed champion put his title on the line in Tokyo against a journeyman named Buster Douglas who wasn't even given one iota of a chance. What happened was something I don't think anyone who saw the fight will ever forget. For the first time ever, the invincible force was made to look like someone who was a mere mortal. I guess it was like finding out Superman was only human. Tyson was never quite the same after that night and a lot of terrible things took a hold of his life, but I'm glad I can still remember the energy and excitement he brought to the sport way back when.

The plan with these drawings is to create a good, old-fashioned fight poster with a twist. The fact that this historic night took place in Tokyo led me to come up with an anime look for the artwork and the use of Japanese typography for all the editorial to create a unique angle on what we traditionally know to be a fight poster. I'll be sure to post the early layouts of the poster design.

On a side note, I've been getting a ton of inquiries on the Indiana Jones series, namely the 3rd poster. I do have a layout in mind and hopefully it will get done fairly soon. It's just a matter of getting on the same page with the vendors and working something out. I'll keep you posted, hopefully sooner than later.

Hey Ladies!!

The Beastie print is now available online here . Thanks so much to everyone who made it down to the show and picked up a copy! You're the illest mother@#&*=+$ from here to Gardena!!

Rhymin' and Stealin'

I finally finished up that Beastie Boys poster over the weekend. Notice how there were 3 comps a few months ago but there's only one final? Well, a few factors kept me from reaching my goal, mainly prior obligations to a Disney book and downright laziness. I also wasn't happy with where the New York and L.A. versions were going. They just didn't seem unique enough so I scrapped them about halfway into the process. After all this time, I still have trouble putting everything that's in my head together on the page successfully. In the end, the "Fly to Tokyo" print, based on the Intergalactic video, became a combination of old TWA/Braniff Airways travel posters and Japanese toy robot packaging. The final size is pretty big (18" x 30") and is printed litho style on some nice textured parchment. They'll be available at the Beastie show at Gallery1988 from January 8th - 29th. Check out their bloggy blog here .

Getting Away With It

My artist friends are able to fill loads and loads of sketchbooks with sketches and caricatures of complete strangers out in public. I have no idea how they accomplish all that work without getting caught staring. I've been drawn (brutally in some cases) many times by these guys so I'm almost immune to the uncomfortable notion at being stared at while I'm minding my own business. I've been in fear to try to do as they do in public because I always have the feeling that if the subject catches me, I'll either be socked, slapped, or be called a pervert or a pedophile (according to subject). Anyways, more power to my artist friends for doing what they do. Here's some sketches that I did get away without being caught. These are a few of my coworkers from the Disney office in London. As you can see, I have a much kinder heart than some of my artist "friends" who either draw me as an alien or butt naked.

Sketch (and Pub) Crawlin' in the U.K.

Never having left the states (except for a few muy caliente nights in jolly old Tijuana), I really didn't have a clue as to the magnitude of all the surroundings I would see in Europe. Photos don't really do any of them justice. With all the historic architecture around, you really do get a newfound sense of what amazing things people can accomplish. Especially with something massive like the colosseum in Rome, your mind is completely blown just trying to comprehend what the hell went on during that build. With sketchbook in hand, I ventured out to capture everything I saw as I traveled. These are sights I saw during my weekend train journeys in and out of London. I have no idea where the flying objects started, but I had fun carrying them throughout each sketch. Upon reflection, those soaring symbols may have come from my never-ending dreams of flying above the world, with peaceful thoughts of hope sprinkling my panoramic memories just as stars fill the vast night sky...oh wait, judging from the last sketch, them flying objects were completely inspired by beer.

Cheese!

Here's a quick sketch in Photoshop. We were given "orange" as a theme for an art wall in our kitchen area. When i thought of artwork hanging in the kitchen, I immediately envisioned cheese. Maybe it's cuz I've been stealing someone's string cheese outta the fridge for like the past 3 weeks. Hey, if no one is complaining, what's all the fuss? Anyway, I always thought that one of the strangest home videos I've seen are the ones filming someone sleepwalking and going into the kitchen. Although they're in a total daze, some of them can open the fridge and even make a sandwich! I don't know if I believe they're really asleep cuz some of those sandwiches look better than the ones I make awake, but it's pretty amazing to watch nonetheless. My mind works in strange ways as you can see. Now I'm hungry! Where's that string cheese??

Fun With Cintiq!

Unfortunately, when I moved out to London, I didn't get to take the Cintiq monitor from work with me. Once you get used to that thing, you really do suffer when you have to revert back to a mouse or a tablet. I think it's called being spoiled. For me, I just got really slow at everything. Fortunately, they finally got all these new Macs and a Cintiq at our London office so I was able to jump back on it for this quick little project. We have these informational signs with a blank open space that are going up in each department and I was asked to come up with something for our team. This came from by all my trips on the tube to and from work. You do get an interesting mix of business people, punk rock teenagers, and families on those trains. The kid represents youth and all that Disney magic (I also snuck in an Arsenal scarf). Although the adults are all serious in their dark business attire, they still have hits of red to show that they haven't completely lost what the kid has.

Time to Get Ill!

The Beastie Boys have been around for almost 25 years. Think about that for a sec. Who in music lasts that long and continue to make music that doesn't completely blow?? Tough one huh? Kool Moe Dee? Nope. JJ Fad?? Na uh! Gerardo??? Think again mi amigo! I've always dug this group and the fact that they can stay relevant and continue to do what they do for the love of it all. It's a great honor to get to create some posters for a tribute show which drops some time in January. My inspiration came from the cover of the License to Ill album. Y'know, the one with the plane? It's gotta be one of the most memorable album covers I've seen and I thought that a series of travel posters featuring that plane would be fun since they've been all over the globe and have influenced so many while doing so. I chose Brooklyn (obviously), Atwater Village, cuz they had a studio there and recorded my favorite album in it (Paul's Boutique), and Tokyo, cuz the visuals and costumes in that Intergalactic video are hilarous and it definitely reminds me of their later years. Each of the posters tie heavily into the music videos they created (which are some of the best videos ever!). Check out that Beastie Anthology DVD if you haven't already. With the option to hear remixes and watch different angles of each video, I think it's one of the only DVD's out there that made full use of all those angle and sound options. A for effort! Only reason it isn't an A+ is cuz them License to Ill tracks ain't on there :( Anyways, I hope that you can get a good idea of where these are going and I'll post updates as soon as I start on the final artwork. Now, what's the time?????

Still at Work

I'm fortunate enough to be a very bust artist these days. That's the good part. Unfortunately, that means while even on vacation, the work comes with me. One bonus, it sure does beat the view from my office of a Glendale back street. This is off the coast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Yes, that's my gross-ass foot on the left.