Come Out and Plaaaaayyyy!!!

I was fortunate enough to get asked by the guys at Mondo to create my very own 'The Warriors' poster. It was a blast to go back and rewatch this cult classic several times. It's definitely late 70's in look and feel, but the story, action, and excitement hold up pretty damn well! It's that rare throwback that was working on all cylinders and strands the test of time. I don't think a better street gang movie has since been made. Although 'Menace II Society' was pretty bangin' in its own right. The poster itself is HUGE at 24" by 36", and at an affordable 30 bucks, hopefully a few of these things will move so I can get asked to do another cult classic poster such as my personal fave 'Born in East L.A.'!

Get Lost!

If you're around the greater Los Angeles area between Tuesday, December 15th and Christmas Eve, be sure to check out the Lost Underground Show at Gallery1988 . All 16 Lost posters will be on display as well as a bunch of Lost-inspired paintings and drawings. I was fortunate enough to get to be one of the lucky 16 artists chosen to create a poster and as a HUGE fan of the show, the pressure was on to do something that captured all my die-hard fanboy excitement. I never thought the poster series would reach this amount of sold-out-in-seconds craziness and get me into the Entertainment Weekly with Sandra Bullock's lovely mug on the cover. Nutso! It's been an insane ride and it's gonna be even cooler to see them all under one roof. I hear there's already a line in front of the gallery...and it's 24 hours away! I'll hope to see you behind that hatch, Lost in a sea of fans just like me!

Yup, Them's Princesses!

Ever since I started designing posters, I've always had this goal of creating my very own versions for all the animated Disney films. Those classics have had such an impact on my art and my career, that I wanted to do it almost as a tribute to the importance
they had on me as a kid. Disney Consumer Products had a cool idea going when they decided to ask a bunch of internal artists to put their artistic spin on the Princesses for a book that was just released, The Art of Disney Princess. You can almost guess immediately what I wanted to do with my pieces. Yup, MOVIE POSTERS!!!

Little Mermaid came out when I was in high school and reinvigorated the entire Animation studio which influenced me to want to get into field that as a career. Although I found I didn't have the chops for animation, it led me down the path to my current position with Disney and it'll always be one of those films that reminds me of how I fortunate I am to end up where I did.

Sleeping Beauty was just an amazing piece of artistic vision. The look of the film made an impact on me as a kid and I remember trying to draw the Maleficent dragon over and over with less than stellar results.

It was an honor to get to 'remix' two of these classic films and I seriously hope I get to do more. Check out the book if you happen to come across it. It's definitely worth taking a look at all the amazing Princess translations my fellow coworkers created.

Lost!

Although I was glued in front of the television all through childhood and my teenage years, watching such gems as Silver Spoons, Alf, Small Wonder, The A-Team, and Saved by the Bell, my career kinda got in the way once I became an adult and my prime time viewing hours were reduced to about an hour and a half a week. I'm not quite sure how I stumbled upon the 1st episode of Lost (maybe it was subliminally planted in my head cuz I work at Disney), but I've been hooked on it since the premiere, and it's become the one show that I do watch religiously every week. The combination of an original premise, an amazing cast of characters, and the ever-growing feeling of never knowing where the story is taking you have all made it the most addicting show I've seen in years - well, at least since Charles in Charge went off the air anyway. So you can believe my fanboy freak out when I was asked to contribute a Lost poster to a series of 16 that are celebrating the show's final season. Each of the artists were given a particular theme from the show and mine was simply called "The Crash." After re-watching the pilot a few times, I realized that the episode follows the plane crash through Jack's eyes. That's where the concept for my poster originated. With Jack as the central figure, all that surround him are the characters and events that fill his storyline - from the love triangle, to the fight for leadership against Locke, to his family ties to Christian and Claire. I used the crash theme as the catalyst to Jack's arc of the series. The color palette is directly pulled from the Oceanic Airlines logo and Dharma logo acts as a 'stamp' that lets you know who's responsible for all of this craziness. It was definitely an honor to be asked to put my spin on the one series I gladly invest in each week. I hope all you fans of the show dig it and I definitely can't wait to see how the story ends.

Check out the rest of the Lost poster series at Damon, Carlton, and a Polar Bear .

Say Cheese!

I've been lucky enough to work with a bunch of classic Disney and Pixar characters over the years. It's definitely one of the highlights of the job and the sheer amount of characters we have keeps things interesting. I mainly work on all the Pixar and live-action film properties so the chances to work with Mickey are slim to none. Fortunately, a project came along where we got to reinterpret that classic Mickey pose that's on all those vintage tees. I based it on the first random thought that popped into my head so I made his feet into cheese and had him take a big bite outta his left foot. There's not much of a concept here other than I was hungry at the time.

Anyways, enough about me, how hot is the model, Kathy?!?!? She definitely makes my Mickey look a whole lot better. In fact, you're probably like "what Mickey??" Thanks to my coworker/photo enthusiast Ryan for the awesome shots. Check out the rest of his wonderful work at RyPhoto . Cheese!!!

Home Sweet Home!

For anyone planning to attend this year's San Diego Comic-con, I'll be signing all them Disney/Pixar posters at the Acme Archives booth (5429) on Friday at 2pm to 3pm. Hope to see y'all there!

Reppin' tha 626

What happens when you're given this:


and you throw in resin, a dremel, an x-acto chisel, a bunch of paint, some fake flowers, twine, bamboo shoots, plastic mini-coconuts,and a whole lot of beer into the mix and lock yourself in a windowless room for 2 weeks? Well you get this little guy here:





A bunch of the artists at work were invited to transform a "blank" vinyl Stitch into their very own version of the crazy rascal for the Experiment 626 vinyl project which will be shown at the upcoming D23 convention in Anaheim, California. The vinyl is actually pretty big so it was definitely a challenge to complete. I wanted to tie whatever i did to the film's story and setting so I chose to make my own Stitch Tiki Idol. His huge helmet is based on the one worn by the Hawaiian king, Kamehameha. There's a styrofoam block in crest and resin was sculpted over it. All the other added elements (eyes, nose, teeth) are also resin. The wood grain was created by carving directly into the vinyl with a linoleum block cutter. My coworker Tiffany, was nice enough to assemble the lei's using a bunch of fake flowers.

Although it took a lot longer than anticipated, I really got a kick out of working on it every day. There was something cool about stepping completely away from the computer and getting to work with real materials and paint again. That, and just locking myself in a room with all that beer was cool little bonus too. Now I gotta sleep off my alcohol/paint fume/resin particle-induced headache before moving on to the next project.

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!!