Headlamp sketching

Union Square in New York City has nice little cafe tables where you can set up for night sketching. Here's one I did last night.

The view is looking west toward the subway stop and the coffee shop.

 
I'm using a Petzl E91 PL Tikkina 2 Headlampwhich has two LED light bulbs, two brightness settings, and an adjustable angle feature, so that you can aim it where you want it. (Thanks, Frank!)

Behind Skybax Rider

If you click on this image to make it bigger, it will tell you a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff about the painting, which I did back in 1990.


The image appears in Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time, which is finally back in print in a spectacular 20th anniversary edition, with 32 pages of new material (including an illustrated afterword that I wrote about the making of the book). You can get it signed and personalized from me at my website.

Or stop by Books of Wonder in New York today and I'd love to meet you and sign your copy.

Across the River

BOOKSIGNING AT BOOKS OF WONDER IN NEW YORK CITY 12:00-2:00 THIS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26.

This morning I stopped by the old age home in town and asked if I could meet someone who has no family around and never gets visitors.

They introduced me to Lester. He told me about Kingston across the river, where he spent his whole life. He remembered the milkman delivering glass bottles, the soda shops, the piano factory, and the brickyards. The way he described it, he seemed to think Kingston still has all that.

"Have you ever been to Maine?" I asked. "No," he said. "Someone gave me the hat."

Before I could finish the portrait, a nurse took him away for his medication. He had sensors on both of his shoes to keep him from wandering off in search of Kingston. "He used to have a sensor on just one shoe," an orderly told me. "But then he'd kick off that shoe and escape with one bare foot."

Thanksgiving Cornucopia

BOOKSIGNING AT BOOKS OF WONDER IN NEW YORK CITY 12:00-2:00 THIS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26.

 
The town of Cornucopia lies just northeast of Treetown in Dinotopia. It's the center of a big farming area, with spectacular harvest festivals this time of year.

The name "cornucopia" means "horn of plenty," and the design motif of the horn spilling over with fruit and vegetables is a common sight in that town. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Map detail from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara.
Wikipedia on "cornucopia."

Trance States

Trance states seem to be an ancient defense mechanism among prey animals, such as pigeons, chickens, or even crocodilians.

Octopus Walks on Land

Proof that you don't need bones in your legs to locomote on land.

Dinotopia Teaching Unit

Tony Shaw, who presides at a one-teacher school in the bush of Australia, has created a teacher's resource using Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara in the classroom.

He put together a free downloadable document to give fellow teachers ideas on how they might use the illustrated book in their curriculum.

"The great thing about working with literature such as yours is that you always find new ideas, approaches and messages to explore with your students. I will be teaching this unit next term and I expect I will come up with additional ideas as I go along."

Thanks, Tony!
Link to Glen Park School page--click on "Dinotopia" to download PDF 
Order a signed copy of the original Dinotopia book for your classroom
Tony's unit is based on the 2007 book Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara

Viking Raid

There wasn’t much to do last night so I joined a raid on IKEA with the Norse Hollywood Vikings.


One of their customs is the “Valkyrie Pile On” in the sofa department, followed by the “See How Many Vikings You Can Fit into a Shower” gag, and the "Pillow Pillage."


There were about 25 of us at the banquet. Of course we demanded the Swedish meatballs because they were out of Norway rats. No one challenged armorer and ringleader Tony Swatton when he brought his longhorn cup to the lingonberry drink machine for refills.


Tony presented me with my helmet as an amazing gift. Wow! Tacka Dig, Tony!!! He based the design on Arthur Denison’s outfit from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara. The wings are hammered brass, riveted onto a custom-made anodized aluminum helmet shell.


Then we went on pillage Hooters, where we had to deal with three of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles....but that’s another story.

LINKS
 Find Norse Hollywood Vikings on Facebook
Tony Swatton's Sword and Stone: Custom-made props and armor for movies
Pick up a signed copy of Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara for a Viking near you!

Character Designer

Yesterday at the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank, California, I had the privilege of sharing the demo stage with character designer John Nevarez. John designs for DisneyToons, where he worked on Tinkerbell and Kronk’s New Groove.


Both of us were supposed to demonstrate what we do in front of live cameras. The only problem was that there was only one drawing table, and somehow I was signed up to do a digital demo. That would have been a laugh. 

So I asked John if he would take the drawing table and let me set up alongside him and draw him at work.


It was a real pleasure to watch John draw. He was completely absorbed in the world of his imagination. He drew figure after figure cascading from the page, just rolling straight out of his head, full of action and expression.

Thanks, John, and thanks to everyone who hung out with us and asked great questions while we drew pictures.


If you’re interested in animation, character design, storyboarding, or concept art, I recommend this expo. It’s a relatively small gathering, but all the insiders from the industry are here. It’s a great place to meet like-minded people.

By the way, I’ve met current and former students here from a lot of the art schools I’ve visited recently: SJSU, LAAFA, CSUF, LCAD, ACCD, A.of A.SF, CCAD, IMC, RIT, RMCAD, Art Institute, Watts, Korpus, 3Kicks, Ringling, Otis, CalArts, and Hartford. (Links take you to my blog posts about those visits.) A shout-out to the students back at those schools: you’ll be creating the next great animated films.

For those here at CTN, I’ll be doing a signing today at noon. And I'll be on a creature design panel at 2:30 with William Stout, Terryl Whitlatch, Greg Baldwin and Dave Thomas from Creature Box, and Sue Nichols.
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John Nevarez's blog
Interview with John on Character Design

Caught looking

A week ago I was in a pizza place in Baltimore, and I saw two young women at the table near me looking at pictures on their iPhone.


Perfect, I thought. They’re preoccupied. They won’t notice me sketching them.

I deployed the Moleskine watercolor book and did a very quick pencil lay-in with a #2 pencil. Then I pulled out two Niji brush pens, one with black ink and one with water, letting everything blur together wet-into-wet. 

Halfway through, one of them looked up, a little alarmed that I was gazing so intently.

This question has come up before: What do you do now? Pretend you weren’t looking? Fold up your book? Stare at something else? That would only make them feel weirder.

Instead, I plucked up the nerve and I marched right over to their table and said, “I hope you don’t mind. I’m trying to learn to sketch, and I was drawing your picture.” I showed them the half-finished drawing, and even though it looked pretty unpromising, they were immediately interested and glad to cooperate. I told them they didn’t have to hold still or pose or anything--just go back to whatever they were doing.


When I finished, I showed them the results and they got a big kick out of it, and they wanted to put it on their Facebook page. Once I told them what I was doing, the awkwardness disappeared. They were happy to be drawn.

Previously: Portable Portraits