ROB the Robot

Another year brings another I am 8-bit show. This time around, I chose to pay homage to the first game my brother and I ever played on the Nintendo system, Duck Hunt. Our system also came with ROB the robot and Gyromite. If you ever attempted to get that robot to work, you can see why we popped in Duck Hunt first. I remember that game being such a mindf@#* at the time cuz the gun actually worked when you aimed at the screen and shot. Them graphics also kicked Atari ass! We were in heaven! Almost immediately, all our grades dropped in school and we couldn't wait to be old enough to get our gun licenses. Thanks Nintendo! As you can see, I created a hunting trophy out of it with a dead duck head. I haven't sculpted anything in forever so it's taking me longer than expected to complete. The duck is still missing a few features like eyelids, that nostril band, some extra feathers, and of course, paint. I'm also using a new sculpting compound called MagicSculp which is a resin mixture that hardens in a few hours and is pretty damn strong. I like it a lot thus far. Much thanks to Mike 'The Bike' Eaton who used his mad woodshop skills to craft that duck foot plaque. Now, where'd I put my Tech 9? $10 says I can cap that Pabst Blue Ribbon can off the hood of that Chevy.

Wall•e!

Check out Acme Archives for the Wall•e posters.

i09 posted a nice write up on the inspiration behind these pieces. Check it out! Just one clarification: I'm not technically a "Pixar artist." Not sure how that happened but if you can get by the title, you'll be fine.

The Wonder Years

I was a pretty happy kid. With a spring in my step and a big, fat smile on my face, there was nothing that a 50/50 bar or some Mexican candy couldn't cure. Whether we spent an entire day skateboarding at the school or bodyboarding at the beach, life seemed so damn fun and carefree. Growing up in laid-back, sunny San Diego doesn't hurt either. With all this happiness around every corner, you would think it would be reflected in my artwork from way back when. Maybe paintings of unicorns and happy trees. Haha, not so fast mi amigo! Here's some illustrations I dug up from a children's book I put together when I was a goofy - and very twisted - teenager. From what I remember, it was a little non-fictional doozy about the day our rabbits got massacred by a pack of wild dogs. Yup, that fuzzy little fella's getting his arms ripped off. Where did it all go wrong?

You Call Him Dr. Jones, Doll!

Here's the completed Temple of Doom poster. I ended up adding a bunch of elements that tied it more into the Raiders poster such as the logo, the limited color scheme, the large 'head' in the upper right, the little 'filmed in color' banner, and the action scene at the bottom right. I figured these changes would make a more cohesive series in the end. Throughout the design process, I constantly move things around to find that balance. Short Round and Willie moved from right to left, top to bottom, and I even seperated them where she was on the upper right and he was at the bottom where the mine cars are. After all these years, I still don't get it right the first, or second, or third, or even fourth time. And that is why I'm an alcoholic!

The Temple print should be available soon at Acme Archives.

The Man, The Myth, the Legend!

Man I look really young in that picture! I looked like I was ready to conquer crap! What the hell happened?? Where did it all go wrong?? This was actually taken about 6 years ago when I was still 20 something. That 's Sadao Miyamoto, or Miyasan, as we at Disney called him when he worked with us. He's now happily retired and playing golf out in Granada Hills. Although I only worked with him for a couple of years and we barely could understand each other (he spoke japanese to me and I don't know a lick of japanese), I'd have to say that he pretty much changed the way I look at life and art forever.

When I was a kid, drawing and painting was an amazing escape. I could remember spending hours and hours drawing cartoon characters in my room and never ever getting tired or bored. That changed once I got to art school and was surrounded by people who were ultra-competitive and a curriculum that was ultra-demanding. The schedule we had left little time for a breath of air. It really became work and I somehow lost the passion for being creative and having fun with it. Out of frustration, I tried looking for a job halfway through school and fortunately I landed a freelance gig at Disney Consumer Products.

My first desk at Disney was across from another designer named Yumi (who amazingly - after a bunch of re-org's and building moves - still sits next to me). She was one of the few on our team who spoke fluent Japanese. Every now and then, a gentleman - with a huge grin and a funny laugh - would visit her and they would tell stories in their native language and laugh up a storm. This was Miyasan. I knew he was a character artist on our team who had worked on cool projects like Tarzan and Lion King. She also said he was an animator in Japan. Talk about an understatement! (More on that later) Yumi was kind enough to show him some of my work and he reacted positively to some stylized stuff I had done on Monsters Inc. and Lilo and Stitch. All of the work I had done was digital and he hadn't quite wrapped his head around the computer yet. Every so often he would stop by to watch me trace out a character in Illustrator, taking notes on a pad while doing his best (with Yumi as a translator) to ask questions about the process. "I will learn" and "thank you" were a couple of things Miyasan would always say before he left for the day.

Although the gig at Disney really rejuvenated me in many ways, I was still at school the other half of the day so I can't say that I was totally cured. Seeing someone like Miyasan, who was energetic, happy, and still willing to learn something new, started to give me a new perspective. He was in his 60's and yet he seemed like he was having a blast! How the heck was he still enjoying this 'work' after doing it for so long?? It was beyond me, but then again I was kind of a sleep-deprived, cranky a-hole back then who took everything way too seriously. Somehow I knew that if I wanted to have a career like his, I had to stop looking at everything as work and find in it what I enjoyed so much as a kid.

The defining moment came one day when Miyasan was kind enough to bring in his portfolio of the work he accumulated during his career. I had only known the work he did for us at Disney but I remembered Yumi telling me he was an animator in Japan for some time. I was hoping to see some of this 'animation'. What I saw left me speechless and people ALWAYS tell me the shut up. Growing up, my main influences were Disney animation, comic books, and Japanese anime, namely this show that was called G-Force here in the states. I grew up on all the shows and books that featured this team of heores who flew around in a bitching spaceship dressed in bird costumes. It was the best thing ever! So you can imagine my fanboy freakout when Miyasan opened his portfolio and the 1st few pages featured his drawings of the initial design of all of the main characters. He was the animation director on that!!! I was floored. And that was just the beginning. He was an animator on Astroboy and a director/designer on about 20 other shows I used to watch as a kid. Page after page brought me immediately back to my childhood and those days that I had all the passion in the world for being creative. The guy who created all this stuff that influenced me to want to be creative as a kid sat in an office just down the hall, and I had no clue! It all came full circle. I would later find that he taught animation in Japan and had a bunch of amazing students who are leading the anime industry today. He came to the states to work at Disney and then to eventually retire and play golf.

With Miyasan, I got to see the blueprint of a successful career - make that a legendary one. And he did it all with a smile on his face, just glad to be doing everything he was doing. He has touched so many people with what he has done (me included) and it really makes me feel fortunate to do what I do for a living. I may not reach as far as he did (can anyone?), but I now know that something I do now can have an impact on some kid out there who happens to love drawing and painting. I can safely say that after seeing his portfolio, every day at work has been a breath of fresh air. On his last day at Disney, I passed by his office to say bye one last time. The space was empty except for Miyasan, the drawing table, a piece of paper, and a pencil. Even on the day he retired, he was still drawing away! I thanked him for all he had done for me and he simply smiled and handed me this:


Thanks Miyasan! See ya at the links!

Hola!

VisualMente, a South American visual arts site wrote up a neato story on me. I haven't been able to translate it yet, but I hope it's a complimentary one. Peep it! With gas prices so high, and the fact that it F's up my passion for demolition derby, I'm now gonna find the nearest mosh pit and bust ass!

Tuzon Jr., Kicking A$$ & Taking Names

My buddy/coworker Rich Tuzon is part of a group show that opens this week at Gallery 1988 in Hollywood. If you're into fine artistic fun made with acrylic paint, wood panels, and a whole lot of pad thai, be sure to check it out. He ain't bad! In fact, I have a monkey he made hanging on my wall. Go for the paintings and stay for the open bar!

Wall•e World

For the upcoming release of Wall•e, Pixar is all decked out with film development art and standees from the film. They were kind enough to use those posters I did way back to line both walls. My first reaction after seeing them up was shock, then I picked myself up off the floor and felt kinda dizzy. Fortunately, they had this bench smack dab in the center where I could get it together. That's me in the middle there with Wall•e & Eve. It's quite the honor to get to work on all these projects. I never thought I'd get close to doing anything this cool. Just as I started to get all sentimental or whatever, I found this fat ball outside and immediately tried to roll into a bike rack on their front lawn. I don't think they're inviting me back anytime soon.

No TIme for Love Dr. Jones!

Here's my initial sketch for Temple of Doom. Of the 1st 3 films, it's the one I've seen the least so I had to go back and watch it a bunch of times as a refresher. As a kid, I remembered it as being my least favorite of the series, but It's pretty kick-ass when you're older and haven't seen it for a while. So much is packed into it. At times, it might feel a bit segmented and even rushed once the action gets going in the mines, but it's still better than 98% of the films they make nowadays. Them 80's were a glorious time! Thanks for joining me in "Tanner at the Movies." Steer clear of that popcorn "butter" dispenser. That stuff ain't made from nature.

Cue John Williams

I finally finished up that Indy piece for Acme Archives. My idea here was to create something that looked as if it came out when the movie took place, circa 1936. I was heavily influenced by Mexican film posters from the 30's & 40's. They had that western/dramatic/action feel nailed down. Check out that Cine Mexicano book if you can. Them dudes sure knew what they were doing way back when. Now that I'm done, I think I'm gonna hitch this port-a-pottie down the street to my truck. It's already on wheels so it should be a pretty simple procedure. I might even cruise the 101 during rush hour and charge a buck and a quarter for pit stops. Adios amigos!

Check out IndianaJonesShop.com for info on the piece.

King Taco

It seems like I'm designing poster after poster nowadays. It's not that I'm complaining or anything because they're a ton of fun to do. Guess my problem is the more I do, the harder it is to come up with something new. But I guess if it were always that easy, it probably wouldn't be that satisfying in the end. A great example of that is that Police Academy where they go to Russia (#6, i think). Talk about a letdown. Anyways, here's an Indiana Jones thumbnail of a poster that's due in a week. I'll post the final hopefully soon.

I Need Sleep!

I finally finished up that X-men poster over the weekend. It was quite the honor to get to work on these characters that I've followed since I was a kid. In the end, it became a combination of the stuff I did for Incredibles and them old German film posters. Hope it works! Now I'm gonna get a big cheeseburger and 8 tacos over at Jack in the Box with this $5 I found in my pocket.

Stan the Man

I tend to hibernate in the fall, hence the no posting for a long ass time. But I finally snapped out of it and I'm now working on a piece based on my favorite super-heroes, the X-men. What's not to like about them? Outcasts, kinda weird lookin', crazy effing powers!! They're like the rock stars of the comic book universe. What really intrigued me about them is that they all live in that mansion. Not to be all pervy, but imagine the crazy mutant sex stories that those walls could tell. Anyways, I've always dug those UFA German cinema posters, especially the Metropolis ones. Using them as inspiration, I sketched up a little comp on a napkin. They're all gonna be sporting their retro uniforms and it's gonna be like 3 colors max. I've cheated it a bit by including Wolverine and Storm. They came later in the series, but I like 'em and it's probably my one and only shot at working on the X-men so what the heck, right? Don't I sound just like a fanboy? The piece is due in a week so I'll be sure and post the final soon. Go Chargers!

Breakfast is Served!

I finally finished my box for the Cereal Killers book. Fortunately, I found doggie treats that looked just like the cereal I had in mind. They even came in those funky colors that I had going in the rest of the design. We did a whole heck of a lot of food packaging projects when I was in art school but I never got to work on one since. Can't believe it took this long...and it's kind of a fake one. Why the hell did they make me take sooooo many food packaging classes?!?! Just kidding. They were fun and I'm sure that knowledge will kick in once I get to work on my dream project which is to design beer packaging! Speaking of beer, I think I'm gonna go get s#!+faced! Cheers!

Baby Steps

I only got into "art" cuz you can wear shorts to work (guess I could've been a lifeguard too, or the Crocodile Hunter). My real ambition was to invent crap. I truly believe that inventors are the unappreciated geniuses of our society. They don't just sit there content with the way things are. They're more like "F the b.s.! I'm gonna make life easier...for everyone." That's such a daunting task and it must take balls the size of watermelons to actually go through with. With that in mind, I decided to muster up what courage I have, screw the "art" thing for a while, reach for the sky and invent something. Call me crazy but I think we're all capable of inventing something pretty f-ing sweet. We just need watermelon balls. Here's my 1st attempt. I call it "The Turbonator Jr.!" Does anyone happen to know how to set up a paypal account?