two days away

two days of offsite meetings...1 sweet game of kickball...1 game of mafia...
an okay bed...the ability to roll up against a wall and sleep...and some cafeteria
food that my stomach is still arguing with...all in all not bad...although next
time i'll stay away from the meatballs.

more monkeys...they're addictive

Quotes on work

I usually try to take notes on stuff that hits me...and lately it seems like the
best place to keep that stuff is on this blog. So pay no attention if you're not
interested...it's just random notes.


I think most of use are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us, like the
assembly line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are
not big enough for people
-Studs Terkel

You can buy a man's time; you can buy his physical presence at a given
place; you can even buy a measured number of his skilled muscular motions
per hou. But you can not buy enthusiasm...you can not buy loyalty...you can
not buy the devotion of hearts, minds or souls. you must earn these.
-Clarence Francis

Down at the plant, I'm doing a job. And when I die, somebody else will be
doing this job. And when he dies, somebody else will do it. I dunno. Makes
you feel great to be a part of something like that.
-Homer Simpson

No amount of pay ever made a good soldier, a good teacher, a good
artist, or a good workman.
-John Ruskin

People cannot be trusted to do their jobs if they do not know how. And if
they have incompetent leaders, the coefficient of the mistrust is the number
of those leaders multiplied by the number of people who report to them.
-John O Whitney

Try to avoid the mistaken notion that money actually measures anyone's
worth. If it did, Madonna would be a better person than Mother Teresa.

Make a serious effort never to do anything you're not good at, unless you
don't have any choice. And while you're doing what you have no choice
about, figure out what you are good at. Then try to get hired to do that.

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with
whatever gift each of you has received.
-1 Peter 4:10

monkey here....monkey there...

an excerpt from "Why Courage Matters" by John McCain

"Not all of us will bear arms for our country. Few of us will ever rush into a burning
building to save others, or stand between criminals and their victims, or push beyond
the limits of our current knowledge to conquer their lives completely to the well-being
of others. Our country's success doesn't depend on universal heroism. Nor does our
individual happiness depend upon proving ourselves heroic.

But we do have to be worthy of the sacrifices made on our behalf. We have to value
our freedom. We have to love it, not for the ease or material riches it provides, not
just for the autonomy it guarantees us, but for the goodness it makes possible. And
we have to love it so much that we will not let it be constrained by fear. It's love,
then, that makes courage necessary.

And it's love that makes courage posible for all of us to possess. We must love freedom
for the right reasons. And, on occasion, our love will need courage to survive, to insist
on our freedom. We'll need courage to be happy......We're all afraid of something.
Some have more fears than others for reasons too various to quantify and examine.
The one we must all guard against is the fear of ourselves.

Don't let the sensation of fear convince you that you're too weak to have courage. Fear
is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. No one is born a coward. We were
meant to love. And we were meant to have the courage for it. So be brave. The rest is easy."

complete randomness

seriously...this one is as random as it gets. so many bits and pieces of details,
conversations, projects, deadlines, you name it and i can promise you something
along those lines has been rattling around in my noggin for the past three days.

so in celebration of that i just crapped on a piece of paper...scanned it...and
posted for your viewing pleasure or other.

Storyboards - David and Goliath part 2

Storyboard - David and Goliath

Tree 03 - pens

no color for this one...well maybe...and i might still add more detail to it...

Tree 02 - Done

well...there's could always be more to do...but i'm ready to move on to the
next tree. took out the linework (the inks) to see what it would look like...i
like it because it looks different then what i usually do...hopefully fiddling
with other people's styles will help me find mine....

Tree 02 - Color in progress

having fun with the different brushs and layer properties in photoshop.

Storyboards - Feeding the 5000 - more

Storyboards - Feeding the 5000

Storyboards

Here's some images we're going to drop into the "Super School" videos. "Stratos"...the
older wiser kid at school has the ability to project images while he tells stories...one
more way to keep the kids attracted to the teaching. They're all my "get'er done quick"
style...will drop some color on them...no shadows or highlights...

Tree 02 - first drops of color

Tree 01 - more color

Tree 02 inks - part 1

not sure if i'm going to add more line work to this...the original is mostly color enhanced.

Tree01 Color in progress

Trees

I feel the need to draw trees for a while. Anything and everything remotely
associated with trees will be worked on for a while. I'm not sure how long this
"tree phase" is going to last. First...the ways other illustrators do their trees
will be copied (great way to learn for me). Eventually...I'll develop my own trees.

no set style

lunchtime doodle

Got to skyline a little early for lunch with J.

meeting notes

I'm not sure if people believe me that I can sketch and listen at the same
time. But the truth is I can...most of my meeting sketches are sketches I've
done thousands of times. Everything looks boxy because I just draw lots
and lots of boxes and circles in perspective...it's a warm exercise they
had us do lots and lots in college. Lots....

Tuesday

the video shoots start next week so most of my work time has been getting ready for
them and prepping everyone else involved...which means all the sketch/design time is
over until the next theme starts. here's some randomness. the tattoo looking thing is
from this image i saw online...of a manta ray tattoo...the original is much cooler...i
need to take the time to do light sketches or in blue pencil...the pen isn't the most
sublte (sp?) of drawing instruments...take for example the second sketch...this one
could take a while with the details...i should have used a blue pencil or some light gray
scale markers to set up the composition...might just scrap this and start over.

boo yah

You saw the cart...here's the horse(s)

should have posted the super school sketches before the final logo
options...but...i didn't

so here goes...kind of a quick turn around time so the amount of
ideation is less that ideal but the final product turned out pretty
well (my opinion) so no worries.

Shrimpola

This is a illustrated version of the puppet we've got to play one of the "kids"...Shrimpola.

Super School

Super School is the theme for september/october in the kindergarten
through fourth grade rooms. We're going to be shooting videos in a
couple weeks that will be used to show some of the kids and the
experiences they go through

At super school kids go...like regular high school...but they're got
special powers...fun stuff...like Tate...he's able to put his hands together
and form hand fulls of whatever he wants...candy...paper clips...fun stuff
like that. But he's not fully in control yet so when he makes a pb&j he
gets the peanut butter and jelly on the outside of the sandwich...

Anyway...these are some logo options for the theme...the stage and
other print materials are going to be worked on after one of these
gets approved.

Kid's Club Baptism Brand

So a baptism is a gift from God...at least that's the stance we're taking
here. Which to be a Christ following organizationi...it's a good way to go.
Kid's Club is getting away from reinventing the wheel for everything
we do... and the baptism experience is one of those things.

Which is great because we can come up with a kick ass program and
then just reuse the reuseable pieces...which leaves us more time to
work on other things and everything up to awesome...but just not
all at the same time.

The "brand/whatever corporate bs term you can think of" is celebration
and we want everyone (parents, kids, onlookers) to know that that
when you get baptised it's a fantastically huge deal.

shrimpola's zambonie library book shelving machine

so...we've got a theme coming up called "superhero school"...all of the
characters go to a school...and they all have super powers...i know i
know...pretty self explanatory.

well one of the story lines is how our size or what we look like doesn't
matter...we're all created differently...shrimpola...the main character...
wants to shelve books at the school library but he's not strong enough.

end resolution is he uses his brain (a gift from God) to create a machine
to help him.

here's a sketch of the machine...needs to be big enough to fit the person
who's going to be controlling the puppet...and quick and simple to
construct since we're on a time crunch.

random sketches

Some of this I did a while ago...but it never added up to enough
to post...you could argue it's still not enough...but i gotta put it up.

more to come.

Dval took it from here

Dval added color and all the cool design stuff.

new sketch for cd case

the last one i posted (only a few posts ago...i've been slacking) didn't
work out so one of rough sketches i had done earlier (only a post or two
ealier that the final color one...yes...me am slacker) got done up. D-Val is
adding the color to is...hopefully i can get that image and post it...the whole
thing looks really great so being asked to do something for the project
was cool.

what's really cool (well...depends on you point of view) is that the cd is
coming out soon...like...the cds are already done...now the packaging
has to be done.

in other news...paige pooped! she was holding out for a while (4 days?).
praying for poop is just about the craziest thing so far. i know it will be
trumped eventually...but for now praying for poop is sitting on top of the hill.