Here is My Christmas list of My Favorite Holiday Animation….enjoy…

Peace on Earth by MGM’s Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising (1939) nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Cosmic Christmas by Nelvanna directed by Frank Nissen

A Wish for Wings that Work (1991) Universal TV Animation, director Skip Jones

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Chuck Jones

A Peanuts Christmas by Charles Schulz Produced by Bill Melendez

Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Disney Studios,1983, directed by Burny Mattinson

Ziggy’s Gift directed by Richard Williams (1982)

A Christmas Carol, A Ghost story directed by Richard Williams, produced by Chuck Jones

Twice Upon a Christmas produced by the Disney Studios

The Box by Paul Driessen (1975)

Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer by Rankin and Bass (1964)

This is a pencil test of the TONY sequence from the animated film OUR WORLD. It was not included in the final because we had enough sequences between longer pieces of animation. If OUR WORLD is an ongoing project- then it will be added later…

All of my animation was shot in FLIPBOOK software by Digicel.

This is RUFF animation and the timing was changed in certain areas after this test…see if you can find what we changed…

Tony is based on my former producer Tony Ames- principle percussionist of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

Tony doesn’t really look like this- except for his “go for it” attitude in life. My BEST producer EVER!!!

Sometime last century, a small animation studio on the outskirts of Washington D.C. was a hub of activity. This animated clip motivated their entire process. It was the first animation produced by the Animation House, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia.

The staff grew from 1 to 6 in about three weeks and on to about 40 artists. keep in mind this was back in the animation stone age when animation was draw by pencil in hand, those drawings inked onto cels and those cels with their beautiful hand-painted backgrounds shot under a camera stand one frame at a time….ahhhhhhhhhh, the good old days.

Freddy’s Christmas was the first animation produced. It was a huge test, a leap of faith, a coming together of kindred animated souls for the art form. Everything seemed so simple then.

It took less than two weeks to animate, paint cels, do backgrounds, do the music, voice (yes, thats me singing off key- on purpose…really), sound effects and mix, edt- out the door.

That was a great time…very special…my thanks to everyone who participated

Raul as depicted in a cartoon sketch on Tybee Island, GA.

Here is a cartoon sketch of a filmmaker friend of mine Raul O Leary. We first worked together on the North/South of Ireland project ANIMAGIC! The idea of ANIMAGIC spawned from the CINEMAGIC Film Festival in Belfast and Derry (known as Londonderry to some folks.)

Anyhow, Raul was instrumental to the animation that appeared between the animated sequences. Raul was GREAT! He never complained and just did his work.

The cartoon sketch here depicts him in his new role from his new live-action project IN SEARCH OF OSAMA.

Hopefully, I can get a hold of some footage and place it on the site or give a link to his site.

Raul spent three years on his quest, it is ALL shot POV (point of view).

This the answer to an email I received today regarding the construction and design of Cute Little Girl Characters.

The request wanted a simple character that could be made into a CG character.

As always I began with 3D type construction to breakdown the character into simple forms and then “play” from there.

Besides the sketch I drew for the demo- I added a few more ideas…

Besides the sketch I drew for the demo- I added a few more ideas…

It came at a good time for me so I jumped right in and there you go…

Cafes and Coffeehouses!

I really enjoy a good cafe or coffeehouse - not particularly for the beverages - but for the scene. They are great places to people watch and to sketch people. With practice, it is easy to glance at someone- get their attitude or pose or face and transfer that via pen and waterbrush to a sketch book.

Here are a couple pages from the UNDERGROUND coffeehouse (on Main and Coffee Streets) in Greenville, SC.

The Underground IS underground. A wonderful basement level cafe with tables and chairs and couches and a stage for night-time events, films  and performances…and they are expanding!

It is a great place to draw!

A page of people sketches using pen and waterbrush

more people as they drift in early last Sunday morning

More to come…still animated!

Our holiday was very relaxing and it gave me a chance to enjoy “being lazy” and having some fun with my sketching…

everything from ink and watercolors to different types of pencils.
Here are a few more….

An ink and watercolor sketch on the streets of Waynesville, NC

The blue thumbnail in the upper right corner is now a Christmas Card.

A guest sits to write in her journal

This from a thumbnail in a sketch above- look at the upper right corner of the red pencil sketch

Another sketch that turned into a Ty B. Bear Christmas card

More art later…

The view from our side of the mountain in Balsam, NC.

This Thanksgiving we were off to the mountains in North and South Carolina for a little R & R & R & R  ( rest and relaxation and reading and rendering). With all our ‘kids” and their spouses off establishing their own new Holiday traditions – it was time for our new traditions, too.

Of course, a rather back pack filled with art supplies accompanied us on our journey.

The Balsam Mountain Lodge - formerly an early 1900’s railway stop.

The first few days we stayed at the Balsam Mountain Lodge in North Carolina, The Lodge has no TV’s or radios -  just fireplaces and a library with about 5,000 books and a seemingly infinite supple of hot chocolate and hot cider. It was amazing!

An ink and watercolor sketch looking toward a fireplace from the library

We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to see what ice and snow look like (not much of that in Savannah).

We spent part of a day in Waynesville, NC. – which must have more art galleries per capita than any town I have ever seen. We ended the day at a furniture store/ café/ gelato shop listening to an evening set by a local singer songwriter. She was excellent!

a night view of Main St. Greenville, SC.

The second part of the trip was to Greenville, SC. We stayed at a hotel and reserved tickets for the national traveling troupe of MY FAIR LADY at the Peace Center. Greenville is such a beautiful town- with a natural waterfall downtown and then there are the cafes, shops and galleries strewn about the city. The town featured an old fashioned Christmas Market and a Festival of Trees (decorated Christmas trees throughout the city). It was a great way to ease into Christmas Holidays.

More art on the way!

My warmest wishes to everyone for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Here is my latest still life an oil 12 in. x 16 in.- not even named yet!

Here is my latest painting - just completed a couple of days ago… two more in the hopper and more on the way. The Thanksgiving break will give me more time to be with family and to draw…

While living in Ireland we had to go to the butchers, choose a bird (hanging in the window) with feathers and the parts still on…have it plucked, gutted, cleaned and dressed.

We would ALWAYS have Irish friends and students over to celebrate our American Thanksgiving!

Enjoy your Turkey Day!

Some more info on character design and posing

A pose with Ty B. Bear

Here’s the breakdown of the character with some tips on pushing poses!

A breakdown of the character construction with some posing suggestions

This weekend was a trip back into a time warp.

Here a sketch from a while back- after the Animation House, Inc. days

We had a wonderful visit with my old producer, Tony Ames and his wife. We met in Alexandria, Virgina - the birthplace of the Animation House, Inc. (AH).
Tony is the best producer I ever worked with- just amazing energy and vision and an all around great guy!

We had a great chat and covered every thing from the old AH days to politics to current trends and projects. We hope to work together again some day…
At one point, I drove over to the old studio on Powhattan Street and found the building (brand new when we moved in 1985) was completely demolished in favor of a new span over route 1 at the North end of Olde Towne Alexandria. Unfazed, we drove to thr original site of the AH - and, it too was demolished to make way for a new structure. The heritage of the AH was gone- except for folks like Dave Vallone, Al Rosen, Michael Lowery and myself who are still in the biz.

We had a great time at the AH- in fact, I helped intro Dave V. to his wife, Leigh - the first of 7 couples I have helped introduce through work or classes.

Well - everything changes!