from the flat file archives: plush baby monsters

Some random hairy little fellows inspired by the troll dolls of yesteryear.  Hope you like:

Grouchland vehicles

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.

Crimson Skies: 26 planes

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.

A boy & his dog

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.