RIO

Blue Sky released its sixth animated feature today. I started working on Rio in late 2007 when it was still in development and did mostly character work. I was involved in the design of the following: Tulio, Linda, the marmosets (monkeys), the baby version of Blu, the spoonbill, the egret, the Canadian goose, the songbirds, the carnival costumes and the end credit graphics. It was a really fun two and a half years being on this picture. We're hoping it does well.

ART BLOCKS FOR GHANA

Below is my contribution to the Picture Book Project Foundation's “Art Blocks for Ghana,” a charity art auction of original work created by artists within the animation and illustration community to provide boarding and education for orphaned children in Ghana. An online eBay art auction will take place in March 2011. My piece is entitled “Favorite Tree” and it is a gouache painting on an 8” x 8” wood panel.

PICTURE BOOK PROJECT COLORING BOOK

Below is my contribution to the Picture Book Project Coloring Book, illustrated by fifty professional artists in the animation industry to benefit the orphaned children of Ghana and Tijuana. The theme was “monsters.”

BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT

Two of my colleagues at Blue Sky Studios, David LaMattina and Chad Walker, have created a feature-length documentary about a pen pal program between a group of at-risk sixth graders living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn and orphans from the war living in Freetown, Sierra Leone. This has also spawned the Postcard Art project, which is an art auction of original postcards based around the same central theme of the film in a fundraising effort to build a school for the orphans in Freetown, Sierra Leone and create a library for the youth at their school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Artists from around the world in the fields of animation, comic books and illustration are participating. Each was given a blank birch wood postcard and asked to create a unique work based on the theme, “pen pals.” An online eBay art auction will take place in March 13, 2010. Logo below designed by Willie Real.

My two submissions

GALLERY SHOWING IN PARIS

Galerie Arludik on Saint-Louis island in Paris curated a show of "Out of Picture 2" development artwork. I was fortunate enough to attend the opening along with Willie Real, Vince Nguyen, Peter Nguyen, David Gordon, Nash Dunningan, Mike Knapp and Mike Defeo. The weather was fantastic, there was a great turnout at the opening and the gallery owners, Diane and Jean-Jacques Launier, showed us such incredible hospitality. Thank you so much “Jack and Diane!”

This is a bust of my WREN map plotter character ("Sub Plotter" story) that I contributed to the show. Mike Defeo (head of the sculpture department at Blue Sky Studios) collaborated on it with me. I designed the orthographics and he sculpted it. We've worked together on characters before at Blue Sky and he always has a way of "plussing" everything he touches.

My orthographics for the Wren bust

Mike Defeo

Signing with Willie Real

Jean-Jacques Launier, co-owner of Galerie Arludik

and Diane Launier, co-owner of Galerie Arludik (right)

Discussing one of my layouts

Willie Real with his "Plane Food" layouts

Peter Nguyen with his paintings for "The Missive"

David Gordon

Olivier Tossan and Mike Knapp

Nash Dunningan

Vincent Nguyen (center)

Claude Ursule Gency, one the most powerful men in Paris today - actually this is my dad.

One of the little corners of happiness in the world - the Daumier room in the Musee d'Orsay.

ANIMEX

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at the Animex International Festival of Animation at Teesside University, Middlesbrough in northern England. Disney, Pixar, Rhythm and Hues, ILM and Aardman are only a hand full of the studios that sent speakers and this was the first time Blue Sky was represented there. My lecture was “The Design of Horton Hears a Who” and the experience I had there was fantastic from start to finish. The festival director, Chris Williams, has really established something wonderful that has grown more and more every year. Middlesbrough has certainly become one of the meeting points in the calendar year for people in the industry. I made many new friends and I hope that Animex continues to thrive and grow.

Quick sketching a daughter of the Mayor of Whoville

Chris Williams (festival director) and

My good friend Dr. Stuart Sumida, paleontoligist and professor at California State University San Bernardino. He has had much experience consulting for animation studios concerning human and animal anatomy and locomotion. He helped us a great deal at Blue Sky with our bird and human character rigs on our upcoming film "Rio."

SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS

My "Out of Picture 2" story as well as Willie Real, Jake Parker and Peter Nguyen's were selected for the Society of Illustrators - Sequential Art show in New York.

My daughter Elise and me with my piece, "Sub Plotter"

Jake Parker and his piece, "Antler Boy"