What I do

Looney Toons webcams

2012-01-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

This Looney Tunes webcam ranks high among the fun licensed electronics on which I've worked over the years. Designed for M.H. Segan back in the 90s, the idea was simply applying a classic Looney Tunes character to a free-standing webcam using some plausible theme. This focused partly on working around the webcam lens and how to either conceal it or incorporate it into the theme.

Here are the examples of that exploration;

The duplicate Bugs and Marvin designs was a result of further theme exploration, as these were the characters they preferred.
Ultimately going with Marvin, I was asked to render up both options for the final;

Planet Heroes: ground zero

2011-08-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

Planet Heroes is a line of toys from Fisher-Price designed for children ages 3-8, depicting various heroic characters each identified with a specific planet. These characters represent their planets in design and features, such as Mercury and Pluto which are very small, while Jupiter is a larger toy. The toys representing the planets have numbers on them corresponding with the number of planets from the sun they are (Mercury is 1, Venus is 2, Earth is 3, etc.)   Every planet hero action figure comes with a trading card that on the front contain a picture of the character and on the back have facts about the planet and the planet hero.
A few of the planet heroes toys were released in a basic model that comes with a smaller accessory. These include the Earth Ace with Skateboard instead of Go Kart and the Mars Digger with Drill and shield instead of Rumble Rover.

        ~Wikipedia

Wiki goes on to reference other items in the Planet Heroes line, including vehicles, playsets, comic books and DVDs. An overall successful line, and one that wasn't spawned from an existing property.
In other words, the Planet Heroes characters and their world didn't exist until created and introduced by Fisher-Price. An increasingly rare kind of toy venture in this era of licensed characters, but not unfamiliar to Fisher-Price, who has a track record of creating unique properties like; Rescue Heroes, Great Adventures, and the classic Little People.

All of these original ideas start somewhere. Sometimes they're invented internally, sometimes they're submitted from the outside. Most of the time their evolution is a combination of the two. Something submitted might spark internal interest and they'll evolve it into something different, or something sparked internally will get sent outside (to people like me) for its evolution.
The Planet Heroes line was a case of the former, in that it was an outside submission fleshed out internally by the creatives at Fisher-Price. The part I played in all of this was generating the initial drawings for the outside inventor, based on their description of what they were going for.
I was hired to design the basic Planet Heroes figures as characters with personality, some spherical vehicles, and a larger playset, all to establish and loosely define the potential direction of the line.

Here are the initial drawings that started 'Planet Heroes';

While the above sketches are pretty far from the final product, they were enough to spark interest at Fisher-Price and provided basic direction and inspiration. Essentially they served as 'springboard' concept drawings, from which some very cool toys evolved internally. Here are just a few;

Planet Heroes - Turbo Shuttle

There are more character figures and accessory sets in the Planet Heroes line. Below is the 'Solar Quarters' playset which, while quite different from my initial concept, retains a few of those same elements and features;

Planet Heroes - Solar Quarters

Solar Quarters - planetarium detail

As is often the case, when something leaves my hands I don't always know what happens to it. Sometimes these ideas die on the vine, other times they ripen and I don't know about it unless I see it on the store shelf or in a TV spot.
In this context it's a stretch to say I created Planet Heroes since I only played an initial part in a larger process. I would have loved working more on the line, given the choice. But as a co-creator I find some personal pride in being there at the very beginning, to help spark it all into reality.

more Monopoly

2011-08-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

After I was brought in by Hasbro Games to re-design the moving tokens, houses, and hotels for their 70th Anniversary Edition, the creatives there asked me to work on pieces for a couple of other Monopoly games in their catalog.

One was for Hasbro's; Monopoly Junior, which plays younger and features an amusement park theme. Again, my task was to design the moving tokens as well as little ticket booths, which are used similarly to Monopoly 'houses' in game play. Monopoly Junior comes with 4 'park ride' tokens; a carousel horse, a roller coaster car, a bumper car, and a log run boat. And like the previous Monopoly project, I initially submitted 2 possible options for each piece.
Here are the designs for the moving tokens;

Here are the drawings for the ticket booth design;

Of course these pieces are tiny when actually produced, but the details reduce nicely. Here is how they look with the rest of the game;

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Another spinoff I worked on was Monopoly Tropical Tycoon, which is skewed for an older demographic, comes with an interactive DVD, and has more play pieces.

The 6 themed moving tokens in this version are; a cannon, a sandal, a hat, a scooter, a parrot, and a sailboat. In this case they wanted more than a couple of options for the hat;

Unlike the single 'ticket booth' in Monopoly Junior, or the basic houses and hotels in the classic version, Monopoly Tropical Tycoon uses a wide variety of themed pieces to populate properties owned; beach houses, resorts, casinos, parks, piers, and restaurants;

Here is how the produced version looks with the parts I designed;

vehicles for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2011-08-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

One of Playmates' most successful line of boys toys is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a while back I was asked by them to design some vehicles for the TMNT action figures.
Of the 3 I designed only 2 of them went to production, but they were all fun to work on and turned out pretty cool.

The first is a TMNT motorcycle.
Here are the initial rough sketches exploring some various options;

We chose a refined combination of the above and defined most of the basic elements. I came up with an opening fairing that shot missiles. Next was fleshing out the details with seemingly cobbled together junk parts, and adding some battle scars, for that TMNT touch. Here is that detailed exploration;

Some last tweaks going into the final design and presentation rendering;

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The armored truck was next, and a blast to work on. There was more to work with in terms of features, design elements, overall play. The initial sketches I developed explored some of those James Bond type gadgets that pop out for battle or transform.

Some even incorporated a smaller vehicle that broke out of the trucks' front end;

Here is the final rendered version;

And finally, here are the vehicles as produced by Playmates;

Fimbles

2011-08-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Fimbles is a British TV show designed for preschool children. The Fimbles are; Fimbo, Florrie and Baby Pom, who all live in a bright, lush and colourful place called Fimble Valley.

The BAFTA nominated show was in production from 2002 - 2004, and during those years Fisher Price Brands designed and manufactured much of their licensed toy products, although they were never intended for the US market.
I've handled tons of licenses over the years, most of them iconic North American characters we all recognize. And I always get a fun kick when working with a foreign property. It's a studied peek into another culture's kid-entertainment. The Mr. Men characters are known perennially in the UK, having been around for 40 years, but they're still obscure to many here in the States.

I worked on several items in the Fimbles line for Fisher Price. Below is a playset I designed with a number of features, including a 'spin & find' activity;

Some minor changes from the initial rendering, the Fimbles 'Spin n Find' playset was evidently a popular item with British tykes. I had virtually forgotten about this project until stumbling across some drawings in my files. A search on Google confirmed that it indeed made it to the UK store shelves.

Doh!

2011-07-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

I've always considered Play-Doh compound to be one of toys' greatest innovations. It has been a perennial favorite for kids and parents since the late 1950s when it was tailored and packaged for kid play. For me it's largely the simplicity of it. It's safe, easy to work with, cheap to buy, and the play is limited only by the imagination. But I also like the fact that it was one of those accidental discoveries, like the Slinky. The compound itself was invented by a Cincinnati-based soap manufacturer to clean wall paper. When it was found that the local nursery schools were also using it to sculpt Christmas ornaments, they tweaked the formula and; voila! Toy-making history.
The Play-Doh formula has changed little since then, and Fun Factories still fly off the store shelves. What has changed significantly is the variety of new compounds introduced over the past few decades; Sculpey, Floam, Bubber, Moon Dough, ..stuff you can bake hard, stuff you can eat, stuff that never dries or stiffens, stuff that glows in the dark, ..whatever you want.
The fun is limited only by the bio-chemistry.

Over the years, I've had the pleasure to work with a handful of toy companies in bringing some new spins to the dough category. Playskool has been the modern purveyor of Play-Doh products (along with Mr. Potatohead, another old favorite I've worked with). Other toymakers often have their own brand of similar modeling compound, and I've handled those as well. Spin Master is yet another, exploring the play found in their unique Moon Sand and Moon Dough compounds.
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Here are just a couple of items I worked on. This first one should ring a bell;

I've mentioned before that there are always tweaks along the way when realizing a product. Play pattern is a consideration, but often times cost is a large part of what features stay or go. Toys need to be reasonably priced for the parents (if not their kids). The Play-Doh: Taco Bell set ended up pretty close to my initial rendering.

Then there's a 'Barnyard' themed set I developed for Spin Master's; Moon Dough line a while back.
Here is the initial sketch that got things going;

Once they chose it from a few other different themed sets I had sketched up, it became a matter of fleshing out the play pattern to get the most fun out of it;

Insets added show the stamp-casting play feature.

Aside from finding a way to use virtually everything in the package to mold or manipulate the compound, there was an emphasis on moving the sculpted pieces through the playset in a fun way.
Whether hay-bail or chicken, it would make its way up the silo, down a conveyor ramp, then back down into the molding tray.

Again, the final product is a little different than the concept, but a fun and popular addition to the Moon Dough line nonetheless;

Skate City & The Roller Girls

2011-07-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

In the mid to late 90s Tyco Toys saw a market in combining elements of Polly Pocket play with Hot Wheels track action, and the result was; Roller Girls!
I was assigned by the small dolls group there to come up with some drawings to pitch the line of dolls and playsets, each doll having a different theme, look, and personality. Each would also come with an environment base that reflected the dolls' theme and offer some sort of action play. The playsets would be themed as well, covering mid and higher price points in the Skate City line.

Skate City Salon: Tyco Toys, 1997

Here are some of the initial concept renderings used to define Roller Girls;

This is the Skate City / Roller Girls line as it appeared in the Tyco buyers catalog;

I did work on the large sets as well.
Here are a couple of mid-priced sets in the line;

..It has always been interesting for me to see how a final product differs from my initial concept drawings. Sometimes I'm more involved in the process of realizing products. It varies, and it's always nice to have that personal creative investment. But I'm just as happy being a smaller spoke in the larger wheel, because everyone else involved seems just as invested in doing their best. It's always a team effort and I'm very rarely disappointed in the results.

Board games

2011-07-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

When I began freelancing in the toy industry back in 1992-93 I started working exclusively on game concepts for Tyco Toys, based in Mt Laurel New Jersey. Their games director needed some creative hands to handle everything from concept art to inventing, to assembling prototypes. It was more out of necessity than anything that I quickly learned how to wear several hats in developing all kinds of games, and within a few months I was dealing with model makers, licensing departments, marketing executives and engineers. I worked on literally dozens of games and activites over a 2 1/2 year period before eventually being offered the salary position of games maven at Tyco, but by then I had already decided I was moving back to the Chicago area. Also, having worked on games already, I was really interested in designing product for other departments; RC cars, slot racing, action figures, preschool, activities, dolls, everything I could. Tyco needed help visualizing those ideas as well and even the VP of product agreed that I'd be more useful to them as a freelancer.

Over the years I have been able to work in virtually every other category, some more regularly than others, and have even continued developing games of all sorts. I still consider them to be a favorite area of expertise and it's always exciting when something new occasionally lands on my drawing board. One of the highlights being the 70th Anniversary version of Monopoly.

Here are a few other games I've created over the years. Again, there are lots more than what's here, and I'll cover more games in later posts, these are specific examples of board games produced and sold;

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Veggie Tales' Jonah: An Overboard Adventure

Big Idea Productions was operating out of the Chicago burb of Lombard when I got the call to design a board game around the Jonah movie they were working on. Their close proximity helped because there was a lot to do in a short time, and being able to meet with them personally and hand deliver everything worked to our advantage. I did some work on the game play itself, but my main task was designing and generating all the production art involved; including final board art, cards, spinner, pawns, ..everything except the package art.

It was a challenge because at that point I hadn't done much digital illustrating for print, and I wanted it to look as good or better than anything I could generate on the drawing board. I learned a lot about working in Photoshop over those couple of weeks and I've done a lot more digital art for print since.

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Looney Tunes' Smush 'em!

While Tyco held a license for Looney Tunes I was asked to come up with some game concepts using their stable of classic characters. There were a few ideas I brought to playable prototype, including the "Smush 'em!" board game. Another was a Tazmanian Devil board game that used a spinning top Taz. Landing your character on certain spaces required starting the sculpted Taz character with a zip-strip and setting it loose. It would swirl around the board and wipe out the moving pawns. A fun alternative and a contender for what was ultimately decided on here;

doughy fun for the entire family;

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The Cat 'N Fiddle game

Along with perennial favorites like Monopoly, Clue, and The Game of Life, I've also worked with Hasbro Games on other Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers concepts, some of them for younger tots. Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, and Operation are a few other classics that I've also revisited for newer generations, trying a fresh twist on an old theme.

For something newer this 'Cat & the Fiddle' game was fun to work on because of my old-school aesthetic approach. I remembered those old "Happy Harmonies" and "Merrie Melodies" nursery rhyme cartoons from the 1930s and drew from that style. They really liked that look and ended up going with it for the final design;

Zooballs!

2010-08-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Back in the 90s Tyco Toys called on me to do some conceptual work for their plush line.

The pitch was simple; They're plush animals that are round bouncy balls. (Ah, minimalism!)
The real task was in making them cute, fun, and marketable, like Beanie Babies (which were HUGE at the time). ..In fact, the price point and consumer niche was geared to compete with the Ty Toys phenomenon.

Really, there was nothing that was not fun about this project. I was given free reign regarding what animals to caricaturize, and no limit in the number generated. It was 'blue-sky' concept work, so I had a good time seeing what I could come up with.
There was some back-and-forth of sketches and ultimately the creatives at Tyco whittled it down to 18 different character balls. Most of them ended up being designs of mine, with about 5 of them being done internally (which they had me redesign for the sake of consistency).

..And they now had a name:

Zooballs!

Another great thing about this project was that what I initially came up with was pretty much what ended up on the toy shelves. A rare occurrence, as typically other designers and/or marketing people will add their own tweaks along the way. I guess everyone thought what I came up with was dandy enough. ..Though, as mentioned, there were a handful that never made the cut.
..like these poor orphans;

The ones that did make it through the gauntlet needed final renderings for presentation and manufacturing purposes. There were no Zooball prototypes in existence and these were going to be fabricated overseas, so they needed some solid reference material. Tyco asked me to generate 2 views of each Zooball character to send to Hong Kong. 'Mugshots' ..if you will.
Here are examples of just some of them;

..for the record? No; I didn't actually pick the names for these guys.

That was someone else's lucky job.

Jumping Sharks and Dinosaurs

2010-08-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

A while back I was brought in to develop a couple of fun stunt bike concepts for Jakks Pacific's MXS Road Champs line.
These toys use the classic 'zip strip' mechanism to power their stunt bikes, and Jakks was working on upping the ante for their thrills and spills.

The first one seemed like a given;
Jumping the Shark.

Sure, it's a cultural joke, implying the 'selling out' of integrity, ..but SOMEBODY had to make a toy out of it, right?
No Fonzie here, though. Sorry.
This concept employed a battery operated shark head who's jaws clamped shut at intervals, challenging the rider to time the jump just right.

I initially explored 2 different themes; A 'Carnival' theme and a 'Mad Laboratory' theme.
Early on, as is often the case, there is some real fun in conceptualizing how these things will look, and what comes in the box. In this case they wanted to include a catch net at the end, and a loop stunt that the rider would need to navigate before going up the ramp. ..Really the ideal thing to disorient any rider on his way to daring jaws of death.
Ultimately, when these concepts go through costing, some of the extra stuff gets trimmed in order to keep the final price down.
But here are the initial drawings that sold the idea;

The 'Carny' theme

The 'Mad Lab' theme

Not to be outdone by themselves, however, Jakks wanted to heighten the danger.
And what could possibly be more threatening to a stunt cyclist?

Jumping a Tyrannosaurus Rex, of course.

..But not just any T-Rex.
This particular Rex was a roaring live skeleton, and could swallow you whole!
The idea used the same battery operated biting jaws as the shark, but instead of jumping across the gaping maw, the rider had to jump over the head, and successfully ride down the backbone and tail to complete the stunt. And if you got caught by the jaws of the T-Rex? You ended up imprisoned in its ribcage!

And did I mention this T-Rex glows in the dark?

Well, it does.

That's right. Eat your heart out, Evel Knievel!

I must admit, I was concerned about the mechanical logistics around this one, but dammit it worked!
I had a lot of fun designing this, and it came out pretty much as I had drawn it. The only thing that went due to costing was the base that I designed for it.
Here's the initial concept drawing that was presented;

Once it was approved, I had to generate a few sketches showing how the skeleton's parts looked and functioned. Because of how this thing worked some creative license had to be taken to allow the bike to be 'swallowed and caged', as well as roll down the spine;

Shake'n Bobbles Hazard Highway

2010-08-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

After I had generated some illustrations for their Monster Sports Games, Shelcore asked me to revise the packaging art for their Shake'n Bobbles Hazard Highway, which was commercially promoted;

AWESOME!

The marketing folks at Shelcore felt the existing art was somewhat inaccurate, as well as busy and confusing in how the set was presented. They also felt the angle of the illustration didn't highlight the features in the best way. So, I was given some new direction and asked to take a crack at it.
Here's the existing;

The main points to tackle; 1. A fun but clear vision of what this thing looked like when in action, 2. A better representation of the item itself, and 3. Instead of featuring the rocking green bridge they wanted to show the car dropping from the upper deck of the orange break-away bridge to the track below.
They did ask me to purposely omit the clumsy dropping platform connected to the bridge for simplicity (which is why it's not seen in the final revised art). Otherwise; "make it look like it works".

To make things easier for myself and Shelcore in assembling the final image, I generated some of the key elements separately. Mainly the character/car, and the track set itself.
Here are the pencil sketches I submitted for approval;

I included a paste-up version with the car in place and given approval on the basics, after a couple of tweaks, I started work on the final art for print. Unfortunately, Shelcore went through some management changes while in progress, and the project was killed.
..Still, not one to let the work done go to waste, I took some time to finish up the project on my own down-time.
Here are the finished illustrated elements as separated;

Finally, I assembled the parts in one piece of art, adding motion to the rocking bridge feature, and bobble-head. Here's the final art ready for print;

..and here's a mock-up of what the revised package may have looked like;

Grouchland vehicles

2010-08-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 90s I got a call from the folks at Fisher-Price Friends for this fun project.
At the time, the talented and creative people at Jim Henson's studio were working on production design for their feature film;
The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland.

F.P. Friends (or Tyco Preschool, as they were called back then) held the Sesame Street / Muppet license for producing toys, and I was one of their go-to freelancers for many of their related concepts. Often when a studio and toy company share a close working relationship, the studio will call on product development to come up with concepts in a tandem effort to shorten turnaround time at both ends.

The parameters for this assignment were pretty straightforward; Come up with a handful of vehicles comprised entirely of junk.
The resulting concept sketches were a series of drivable ready-mades that could pass as cars, trucks, and vans for incidental use in populating the world of Junk.

The last 2 vehicles had already been designed for use in the movie, but Fisher-Price and Henson wanted concept drawings for each.

These were already being considered for toys in the line, and they wanted something for context in relation to the vehicles I came up with.

..RIP, Mr. Henson.
Thanks for all the joy.

More Koni

2010-07-31T05:05:00.000-07:00

With the success of Koni Waves comes the demand for more commissions.
The Arcana-produced property has developed a respectable following over the past few years, and the opportunity to promote it further was a fun prospect for me. Koni's creator and lead artist, Steve Sistilli, published an 'Art of Koni' book that flew well with fans enough to put out a 2nd volume, and it seems a 3rd one is on the way. And being a close pal of Steve's, I'm more than happy to oblige when I can.
It's not only another opportunity to see my work in print, but it is a kick when I have the chance to hang out with him at a comic convention. We get to act like a couple of kids, and glad-hand with all the attendees.

Here's a couple of more recent posters ready for print;

Print size on the following is 18" x 33"

The below large poster prints out at 36" x 48"

Not too difficult to see why the comic fanboys love Koni.

She's always ready to kick some monster ass.

portrait study of Lon Chaney Sr.

2010-07-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of Lon Chaney Sr. since I was a little kid. To me, his portrayal as Erik in The Phantom of the Opera is still bone-chilling.
But his work as one of films' premier character actors goes far beyond his more memorable roles as The Phantom or The Hunchback. That fact has been lost largely to the passing of almost 90 years, ..but it's also a fact that not many photos of Chaney, as himself, even exist, since he was a pretty private person off camera.

..Still, I wanted to generate a color portrait of the man 'out of character' that I thought captured his essence. I googled the best I could and this was about the best photo I could find;

Old photos like this can be a pain to work from. Either contrasty or washed out, and this one is no exception. In spite of the glorious and well-lit glamor photos by old-school Hollywood photographers like Josef Von Sternberg, George Hurrell, or Laszlo Willinger, there aren't really any richly lit photos of Chaney like that to be found.

But a little imagination and artistic license can add additional light sources, as well as reduce shadows and glare to a (hopefully) more accurate and rich image of what once was.

..That friendly but mischievous expression does seem to capture his essence.
I hope I've given the man's countenance a little due justice.

iPod touch dock/player

2010-07-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get an idea for a concept and I just have to roll with it. (pun intended, ..sorry)

What car doesn't have a stereo? And the notion of an RC vehicle that doubles as an iPod dock/player seems like a slam-dunk, to me. Any number of cool vehicles present themselves as a candidate for such a concept, but the application of a perennial license like Scooby-Doo was one way to get this concept across in a way that would appeal to tweens as well as boomers like me. Especially if there's some neat animated feature to play with.

My illustrations pretty much explain the dual function, but I'll describe the features since I have the bandwidth;

Here's the Mystery Machine in its static state, the iPod touch shows scale and rough position where it drops into the slot dock on the van's rooftop.

Open up the back end and its display becomes the TV screen on the inside of the van.
The wall speakers function for stereo sound, the mirror ball spins, and the sculpted Scooby bobs his head in time with the music (much like your average iPet).
The tail lights function as manual controls for the iPod, and the license plate is an LCD display for track number, volume level, or even AM FM signal.

Spin Scooby around, and he can join you while you view any videos you may have stored.
The same LCD screen displays running time, or can function in clock mode.

Crimson Skies: 26 planes

2009-10-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

Before it became a popular XBox game, Crimson Skies was originally a PC game conceived and produced by FASA Interactive.
FASA was a Chicago-based game company headed by a fine fellow named Jordan Weisman, that created and produced role-playing and PC software games. I was brought in as a conceptual artist on this, as well as some later projects that would ultimately be produced for XBox and Playstation.

Crimson Skies was one of the first projects on which I worked. The developers there were putting together an 'Aircraft Manual' for the PC game, which would contain the basic rules of game play, but also technical descriptions and illustrations of all the different models of planes used in the game. Given the game's premise, scenario, and time period, these planes defied conventional design for a more 'steroid injected' look. These were aggressive dog-fighters.
I was given the copy pages describing each plane, then I was given free reign in designing them.
They would need orthographic views of each plane drawn for one page, and a 3/4 view action shot of the same plane for the other.

The view drawings were done using fine felt-tip pen, and the dramatic action shots were rendered using gray-toned Pantone markers.
With some minor back-and-forth feedback, all 26 planes took about 4 weeks to design and render for delivery.

Here are 12 of the 26 planes found in the published manual;

The people at FASA were a joy to work with. Focused, creative. and fun. Over a period of 2 years I had the opportunity to generate characters, wardrobe and accessories, vehicles, storyboard cinematic sequences, visualize landscapes, cityscapes, exotic structures and their interiors. Much of this conceptual work either helped define the overall look of a game, or was used directly in constructing them digitally in the actual program.
By the time I finished working on my third project with them, Jordan had offered me a permanent position there as staff artist. It was tempting, and while I was considering it they got a lucrative offer from Microsoft. My offer still held, but Bill Gates ended up moving FASA's offices, and most of its staff, to Seattle upon acquisition.

More virtual oils

2009-01-16T12:38:00.001-08:00

Another study in Corel Painter, done back in the late 90s.
This montage was inspired by the 1931 horror film, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Out of the many interpretations of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story, this one is the best and easily my favorite. And of all the gothic horror films that permeated the cinemas in the 1930s, this one seems largely overlooked. This is possibly because Universal had cornered the gothic horror market with Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Wolfman, and this gem came out of Paramount Studios.
But it's definitely worth a watch. It's the creepiest. Parts of it were censored by the Hayes Committee, mostly for sexual suggestion, but it's also a pretty violent film for the time. And Fredric March gave such a great performance he actually won an Oscar that year for best actor.

Virtual oils

2008-08-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

I found this while cleaning through my hard drive. It’s a study from years ago when I started working with my Wacom tablet and Corel Painter. I’ve never really explored Painter thoroughly, ..not even really using it for the Koni pieces I did for my friend Steve. It’s a fun tool though and I should consider cultivating some real skills with it. I guess when it comes down to digital painting I'm a die-hard Photoshop man.

I've always loved this photo, though.
It’s actor Conrad Veidt. A frame from ’The Hands Of Orlac’, made in 1928. I'm a silent film nerd and I like the idea of using old photos as reference for color illustrations rather than colorizing or tinting.
It has made for some pretty striking movie posters over the decades

The Diner Phone

2008-08-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

Some years ago I worked on a series of novelty electronic items for Segan Animations and Telemania. They've been forerunners in novelty electronics for years and they still continue to come up with crazy concepts for telephones. The pleasure of designing stuff like this is in the attention to detail they put into them, and this was no exception.

I had initially done some design work on their Barbie telephone and clock radio, and they liked what I had done enough to bring me in on designing a phone that looked like an old mid-century dining car.
They provided me with the basic idea and how it would function. The roof of the diner would remove to become the hand set, while it revealed the interior of the diner.

Oh, and when the phone rings it plays Bill Haley's 'Rock Around The Clock'.

I spent some time researching different classic dining car diners, combining the classic elements like glass block, stainless steel, and using a palate of red, black and white.
I presented them with this marker rendering for inspiration, and they told me to run with it.

Once we had a defined look it was a matter of fleshing out the interior, which wasn't difficult from a design standpoint. I had already seen enough and had even eaten in a few of these kinds of dining cars because there were still a few around where I lived at the time.

I generated a 3/4 view of the inside, then added in some characters, since they felt it should have more personality.
Once again, I drew from archetypes of that era; a teenage boy and bobbysoxer holding hands and sharing a malt, a traveling 'Fuller Brush' salesman, a jolly short-order cook, a counter waitress, and a policeman interacting with a mischievous kid.

I took details of the inside figures and generated larger turn-around drawings to give the sculptor something specific to work with.

A couple of years after I worked on this I ended up meeting the artist who did all the sculpting for this project. We both shared a laugh over the details that went into it, and he thanked me for providing him more than he needed to do the work.
The figures in this diner would only be about 3/4 of an inch tall.

Toward the end they decided the free-standing neon sign for "Joe's Diner" was a little much, so they asked me to generate a series of alternatives, one of which would be used on the diner itself so no base would be needed.
Here are some of the variations I came up with;

In the end this is what the final product looked like;

Here is the rendering for the Barbie clock radio I had done;

Of course there are always projects that never make it to the store shelf. The following is a rendering for a proposed "Wizard of Oz" Emerald City phone that, while fun, was simply too elaborate to be cost effective.

But I did have a lot of fun designing it.

Promotional posters

2008-07-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

My good friend Steve Sistilli over at Rough Sketch Studios has been hard at work creating and publishing his own comic books for a few years now. They're doing pretty well, and as much as he has encouraged me to create and illustrate my own book series, I simply haven't yet had the time to make the commitment.
But it hasn't stopped me from contributing some one-off illustrated posters to promote his titles.
The print sizes on these are about 28" wide.

The first piece was done in '06 to promote his Koni Waves series.
Koni is a private detective living and working in Hawaii, and the premise is roughly a cross between Modesty Blaise and The X Files.
The intent for this pin-up was to show the character of Koni surrounded by elements and minutia of her daily life, ..which gets pretty surreal and creepy.
It was a challenging piece, but a lot of fun went into the details.
There are some little easter eggs in there.

Another title that Steve's studio is producing is a book called Velvet Rope.
It's a horror anthology much in the vein of "Creepy" or "Tales From the Crypt". Except instead of a gnarly old uncle or a cackling zombie corpse, the segments are hosted by "Velvet", an undead vixen and grindhouse movie usher.

Steve's idea.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of Psychotronic culture and old horror, so I gravitated toward this pretty easily. Steve suggested the idea of Velvet standing next to an old hearse, or a "Big Daddy Roth" kind of Hot Rod. I zeroed in on grandpa Munster's "Dragula", created by George Barris back in the mid 60s.
I thought it made the perfect car for Velvet.

A boy & his dog

2008-06-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of kids who grew up to become illustrators I liked to draw cartoon characters and superheroes. Over the years I've worked with scores of licensed characters and properties in the toy business, and my love of character and production design started getting me projects where I'd be asked to come up with original character designs for toys at Mattel, Hasbro, and Fisher Price.

Some of that work will be covered in future posts.
These sketches are the result of an exercise I came up with for myself. One reason was for the experience, but also should any director or design manager ask to see some original character work.
The idea was to explore a range of looks for simply "a boy and his dog". The only restriction I gave myself was that the characters must be capable of being sculpted (no 'floating' elements like eyebrows). Nor could it be too graphic-based (Computer Generated, expressively 'inky' or 'washy', etc.)

I tried to cover a broad range of looks, bearing in mind the requirement of some visual chemistry between the 2 characters. Part of the challenge (and great fun) was playing with different ways the 2 could widely differ, but still complement each other.

Here's what I came up with;

I've always thought these sorts of personal side projects are vital for an artist or illustrator who is out there trying to make a living. They're essentially self-directed projects that work certain muscles and, over time, bring a lot of range and diversity to what you can show an art director.

I've been lucky enough to get work doing other production design for film and video games, having contributed vehicle designs to the 1999 film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

The Editorial years

2008-06-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

When I graduated from college in 1985 I hit the private sector as an aspiring illustrator. It seemed that the coolest thing to get into was editorial and publishing work, since the other alternatives suggested to the students were Advertising, children's books, or medical and technical illustrators (for visual reference).

I put a portfolio of work together and hawked around the magazine and periodical business for about 6 years.
During that time I worked regularly for a variety of publications like Crain's Business, Outside, Playboy, National Lampoon, Student Lawyer, The Atlantic Monthly.
I really enjoyed doing this kind of work, ..but the assignments were inconsistent, and it never paid well enough to cover all the rent. During this time I supported myself by working at an advertising agency, ..which, after 5 years, was more than enough. I had my own personal work to nourish me, and once I got into the toy business I was so busy that I stopped pursuing editorial work altogether.

All of my editorial work was done before the advent of Mac and Phototshop.
I worked with guache media and colored pencil, developing a 'resist' technique that gave a textural and atmospheric feel that I liked.

These are unretouched.

..this Escher-esque piece inspired one art director to suggest the following, for an article on the acceptance of women CEOs in the corporate world;

..some other spot illustrations;

Over the years, a number of art directors have suggested that I pursue illustrating for children's books.

I had a nice working relationship with Playboy Magazine, and they even called me to do a few 2 page illustrations on occasion. This is one of several spots I did for them sometime in the early 1990s;

This is an illustration for the cover of a 1994 issue of Student Lawyer magazine;

Monster Sports cards

2008-06-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

In 2005 I was approached by Shelcore to create illustrations for a line of handheld sports games. The games themselves were themed to 5 different sports, and the characters representing them would be these crazy looking monsters. The handheld games and characters already existed. My part would be generating collector sports cards for each character. ..like a Topps baseball card replete with name, stats, and other invented details. The parameters? An 'action shot' of each monster 'making their moves'. The print size of these illustration would only be the standard 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" , but I did them at 8" x 10" for detail. I went for exaggerated perspectives.
The 'Big Daddy Roth' feel of these characters lent itself to that approach, so it worked out pretty well.

The approved pencil drawings were rendered in Photoshop.

Monopoly 70th anniversary edition

2008-06-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

In 2003 I was approached by one of the lead designers at Hasbro, asking me if I'd be available to work on pieces for an upcoming 70th anniversary edition of Monopoly.

"Of course I'm available."

The more details they gave me, the more excited I became. Aside from fact that it was a nice high-end item, the 70th anniversary edition would have a decidedly Art Deco look, very reminiscent of the late 20s - early 1930s. Influences of Van Alen's Chrysler building, or Sullivan's work here in Chicago.

..oh, did I mention that it was thee Monopoly?
How did this fall into my hands?

But I was more excited than daunted. I wasn't going to be designing the entire game, but specifically the tokens. I was still grateful. How many generations grew up with those little guys, fighting over who got to be the "scotty" or the "racecar", or the "boot".

The classic tokens were, of course;
the boat, the boot, the iron, the thimble, the horse, the scotty dog, the wheelbarrow, the cannon, the race car, and the top hat. Also a more recently added piece; the money bag.

This is what they look like in the classic version;

I was asked to redesign them to suit the aesthetic direction of the new version.
Well, I had already been a student and appreciator of Art Nouveau, Deco, and Bauhaus since college.
I started by looking through my own reference books for feel, then searched online keywording specific objects and dates. That helped with things like trains, cars, and footwear. Items like the thimble, the top hat, the iron, ..these things were always pretty simple and nondescript. I had to re-design them to look authentically Art Deco. As a consequence, influences of Joseff Hoffmann, Le Corbusier, Erte, Van Alen, and even old Busby Berkeley movies would find their way into this project.

I initially submitted 2 designs for each token;

Of course I loved working on the Scotty. I liked the fez.

The horse couldn't have a cowboy. Too unrefined. I went equestrian with the first.
The 2nd design was meant to be more sculptural and stylized, like an Erte.

The vehicles were fun to work on.
The directors at Hasbro encouraged a departure from the classic 'midget racer' favoring something more urban and elegant. With few exceptions, cars in the early 30s were still pretty boxy looking. Art Deco styling wasn't really integrated into auto design until the '36 Cord. The classic Mercedes Benz limo was the 'historically accurate' pass. The stylized '36 Cord was the one they chose.

The 'choo-choo train' had to go. It was too Civil War era. I knew where to go right away. To the gleaming stainless steel bullet trains.

The boot would be changing to an evening wear shoe. One version would be bent up, as if in mid-step.

Hand irons were still pretty primitive in 1930. Most of them were still literally blocks of iron with handles stuck on. You would heat them up on the stove top. They looked really clunky and utilitarian until the 1940s. I had to imagine what an old Art Deco iron might look like.

Decorative thimbles were almost always Victorian. Filigree and flowers. These deco designs offered both bold and simple options.

Anything can have style, given a little imagination. These are variations on the kind of garden wheelbarrow most people owned back then.

The best approach for the cannon was to go for something decorative looking, like a ceremonial cannon, ..or, in this case, a circus cannon. How perfect.

The boat was tricky. It couldn't be decided if it would be best to go with an old ocean liner, or a classic yacht. I did a couple of ocean liners, which served okay, but I found some photos of some old wooden cigarette racing boats that were stunning. They liked them much better.

..Anyway, designs for the money bag and top hat followed accordingly, and everything went over so well they then asked me if I was interested in designing the Houses and Hotels.

"Of course I'm interested."