Happy Holidays To All My Internet Friends!!  Here's What This Year's Version Of The Christmas Card Ended

Took almost a year, but I'm finally back with an update..Thanks to all, for your kind patience!

Since February 2016, I’d been working Layout on Nickelodeon’s upcoming “Welcome To The Wayne” cartoon series. But now, I’ve chosen to take some well-deserved time off. I was feeling pretty burnt out, and wanted to take my body/mind off of any kind of clock or schedule, to try and recharge my creative batteries.. Been spending a lot of time thinking about things I’ve already done in my career, and what I still hope to get done? During one of these moments of reflection, I was surfing YouTube and stumbled across something I’d once worked on here..

In 2000, I did Layout and Design work on a rather dodgy Christmas Special entitled: “Timothy Tweedle: The First Christmas Elf”.. It was done thru a small Toronto boutique studio called: 'Animation House'. But I think at that time, they'd just been bought up by ‘Evening Sky Productions’..

That was 17 years ago, and a lot has changed.. Chris Hayes, was a friend I worked Layout with. He passed away suddenly, this past January. Fred Wilmot was the principal animator on the sequence I worked on, and he passed away in November 2013. Our Production Manager was a young Morghan Fortier, who now co-owns her own Toronto studio!

Much of the production work was farmed out to Ottawa’s ‘Dynomight Cartoons’. It was my job to check their Layout work. And to complete Layouts (with Chris) for a big song sequence (featuring “Fabulous Flo”) which would be animated by Fred Wilmot, in-house..

Overall, it was a fun experience. But as is often the case, the project was a low-budget affair with short deadlines. Designs too, were largely non-existent,-- and I had to invent most of that stuff myself, as I was laying out the scenes. I’m relatively happy with the end results, but was frustrated that many of the Staging details we included in the layouts were either ignored, or used sparingly. I think the final animation comes off as pretty rushed, too. Fred probably realized it was not his strongest work, as I noticed he chose to use the name:“Marcello Wilmot” in the end credits!! haha  

I recently bought the new book on Maurice Noble: "The Noble Approach", covering his thoughts on Animation Design & Layout.. It's an excellent read! Put me in a nostalgic mood,-- so I thought I'd post up an old 'BEETLEJUICE' Layout of mine..  Back in January of '91, I did 14 scenes for the episode entitled: "Fast Food".. Can't recall too much about it. But I'm amused that I felt the need to use a half-size Field for this specific shot!

A much more recent Sketchbook page.. These were Frazetta studies (from his 'JOHNNY COMET' strip), analyzing how he handled seated women. But about halfway thru, I decided I wanted to convert them into poses for a snake charmer.. A fun exercise, indeed!   

I had a “Mean Girls Club” kind of TCAF Sunday afternoon!..

A commission that I did back in 2004, for a Gordon K. (from San Diego).. He had a very unique request for a trapped Animé-style Mermaid.. Thankfully, he also provided me with a good deal of reference material..  I tried my best to incorporate everything he'd asked for.. Hopefully, he enjoyed the result?

Lookee what I was able to snag at last weekend's 'Toronto Comic Show'.. A copy of "GAMUT #3"!!  This was a fanzine produced by Sheridan College's now-defunct 'Comic and Cartooning Course' in Oakville.. It was designed to showcase talent attending the school..

Apart from the rare (and funny) Berni Wrightson cover art,-- the main reason I bought it was for a comic story inside by: Bob Smith.. A very talented guy I once worked with at Nelvana, on a number of their action-adventure cartoon shows.. Later on, he went on to do storyboards for Bruce Timm on the WB cartoons..

JOE DUDLEY -- Courageous Candy Store Owner!

Sketchbook study of an old comic-book panel found in a “CRIME DOES NOT PAY” reprint volume.. The original artist was Dan Barry, I believe. I like the idea of doing a small ‘zine with isolated panels like this one. And I’m hoping to use this image in the future, for something along those lines..

This is the other Daniel Torres artwork, that I purchased at a recent Heritage Auction.. A large mixed media illustration of “Roy Batty” from one of my favorite films: "BLADE RUNNER”! You can see in the 2 large panels across the top, that Torres illustrated: “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion..” (LEFT) As well as: “..C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate” (RIGHT)  This illustration was published in the November 2019 issue of FOTOGRAMAS Magazine, to accompany an article about Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking 1982 film!

Sorry,-- this is another pen and ink illo that I did from a few years ago.. While browsing my Tumblr dash, I stumbled across the photo reference I'd based this (see sidebar) on.. Kinda surprised me! hah  It was an "illustration friday" based on the word: "Launch", if I recall..

I recognize a lot of these images from episodes that I’ve worked on.. But it’s been so long, that I can’t really remember anymore. Part of getting old, I guess?.. I have a bunch of Layout lists stored downstairs somewhere, and one of these days I’m gonna catalog what I did and where!

1990 Beetlejuice Valentines