VeggieTales Creator Partners With Focus On The Family For New DVD Series

Some exciting news about an upcoming project I’ll be working on:
Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales (the best-selling direct-to-video series of all time) and of the kids’ media website JellyTelly.com has just announced a partnership with Focus on the Family to create a 13-volume educational DVD series called “What’s In The Bible?” The DVD’s will [...]

Illustration for Great River Energy Kid’s Club

A few weeks ago I was hired by a local agency to create some artwork for a new interactive website for Great River Energy, a Minnesota company that provides electricity to a large part of the state. The site is promoting their “Brighter Kid’s Club” campaign designed to help kids learn about saving energy.
I was [...]

2-Part Character Design Seminar

Just a reminder that I’ll be giving a 2-part seminar on character design at the Motion ‘09 animation conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 11-14. It’s a real honor. Last year’s conference was packed with great speakers and seminars and this year the conference has even more to offer.
I’ll be part of a new “late [...]

I’m Speaking At The Motion09 Conference

I’ve been invited to give two presentations on character design this fall at the Motion ‘09 animation conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 11-14. It’s a real honor.
I attended last year’s Motion ‘08 conference and it was one of the most fun and informative conferences I had been to in a while. I attended seminars [...]

Mascot Contest 2

(EDIT: Contest is now closed. Winner and correct answers here.)
As a character designer I’m fascinated with product mascots. A good mascot, when combined with a strong ad campaign, can be an enormous benefit when promoting a product or service. My favorite freelance projects are when clients hire me to design a mascot or character, either [...]

“Drawing The Line”

As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I had the privilege of meeting animator and author Tom Sito. I just wanted to take a moment to plug his book, Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. You are probably thinking it would be hard to [...]

New Sketchbook From Craig McCracken

Craig McCracken, creater of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, has released a brand new sketchbook entitled Wander Over Yonder. I’m a huge fan of his character design work and can’t wait to get my signed copy in the mail. Don’t wait too long to order yours. Word on the street [...]

Give Your Poses Clarity and Interest

I have a confession to make: Lately I’ve been getting lazy in my drawings. When designing a character I’ve been so focused on the overall design that I’ve completely neglected the importance of good posing. My designs have been improving in recent months but my characters wind up mostly just standing around (at least in [...]

Veggies In The Unemployment Line

Sad news. It appears that VeggieTales may soon be no more.
Big Idea, the studio that fifteen years ago gave us Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato, has recently laid off most of its staff and announced that the company’s owners are facing bankruptcy. Details are posted at Phil Vischer’s blog.
This isn’t the first time [...]

“3-2-1 Penguins!” Effects and Color Keys

Most of my work on the 3-2-1 Penguins! TV series was character designs and a few props here and there. However, for one episode I was asked to help out on some last-minute effects work. That episode aired this past weekend on NBC so I am finally able to show the art publicly.
In this episode [...]