Bolt

I bought Bolt on dvd today.

It's one of the few non Pixar CG films that i really love (and How to train your dragon of course).

The lighting and backgounds are magnificent and the characters are fantastic.

I noticed in the extra features that John Lasseter played a significant role in this film so I wonder if that was a major contributing factor to quality of this film.

Whatever the reason tho, I loved it. As a dog lover I really bought into the characters, and then there's "Rhino" who would have to go down as one of the true awsome cg characters in film.

Did a bit of sketching as i watched trying to nail the character of Bolt.

Work in progress

Xmas theme sketch of the dogs that we are planning to put on some home made xmas cards.

Work in progress...

Scribble

My dog, Sam...

Sam and Leela

Working on a sketch of the family for our xmas card project, so just started warming up with a sketch of Sam and Leela. Amzing after just 4 days without drawing how rusty you feel.

Rover coming together

Put in a little bit more time on rover today. He's starting to come together.

Bit more Progress

Got to spend a bit more time on Rover tonite. been alternating at nite between doing this and teaching myself After Effects. Figure it'll add another string to my bow.

Rover the Dogmonaut - rendering project

Wanted to do a personal rendering project. Don't get a lot of chance to spend time rendering on image at home so i thought i'd take the opportunity to start on one tonite.
Have completed the intial sketch and started the render. Here's the progress so far.

Just went and saw Pixar's UP

I just went and saw Pixar's UP, and wow!
I thought after Wall-E it would be a hard follow up so i went in prepped for disappointment.
How i could have ever doubted the brilliance of Pixar is beyond me. I'm hesitant to make comparison's to Wall-E as i am still riding on the euphoria of UP, but i must say - WOW!
Pixar have shown yet again that they are truly in a league of their own when it comes to character and storytelling.
And as a dog fan I was in heaven. I think Dug may be the cutest animated dog character i have ever seen on film. Simply brilliant and utterly hilarious.
If you get the chance go and see this film immediately. I saw it in 3d which was fantastic but i'd have to say the story and characters are that good that without the 3d this is simply brilliant.
Needless to say i came home inspired and scribbled up this Dug-inspired sketch. I did mine a little younger and thinner than the movie character.
Coloring a little darker too.

More Inspiration...

I was pretty chuffed the other day when a kid sent in a fan letter for pawphans and some of their own drawings. I was even more chuffed when just a week or so later when another one came in from a different kid.
Seeing this stuff from talented kids is so inspiring.
What makes it so special is also that of all the brands i have worked on here at work, Pawphans is probably the closest to my heart. It contributes to a great cause and its all about dogs.
As with the previous kid i also did a bit of a skecth to go out with the company response. I'd love to put the kids stuff up here but i'm not sure if i can so for the meantime we'll have to settle for my humble efforts.

Why we do what we do...

From a post a few weeks ago on my puppies at play blog:

Its been a while since my last post.
Unfortunately have been bogged down with work commitments and other projects and haven't had the chance to draw any of my favourite puppy pictures.
I was inspired tho the other nite after a day at work. That day my company had received a bit of fan mail for the pawphans i design where a young twelve year old kid had sent a letter saying how much they loved the product and they enclosed some drawings of their own. They were fantastic and i had to say were the highlight of my week - if not even more so.
After a partucularly frustrating week this reminded me why so many of us do what we do - the warm feeling you get when you get to see the joy that a young kid gets from your product.
It put a lot of things in perspective for me and really made my week extra special.
That nite i actually went home and sketched up this pic for our customer service department to send back to the kid. I guess it was a bit of a thankyou for reinspiring me.
I'm hoping that i can one day show the kids drawings on this blog (will have to seek permission first tho).
Hopefully my next post won't be so long a wait next time...

Need coffeeee.......

Just a really quick scribble this morning...Badly need coffeeeeeeeee.....

some of my latest...

Did this illustration of my work mate, Sue's dog, Winston. Winston has got himself in a bit of trouble and needed to send someone an apology card. I did this image for the front of the card.

Puppy Poll - Would love your feedback

Worked on some more puppy styles and decided I wanted to get your feedback on what your preferred style. I will then look at implementing that style into some future puppy sketches. I won't however be using the Pawphans or Me Mate styles I developed for Moose as I don't want to leverage off their products and want to distance my personal work from those brands as much as possible.
If I can get you to write in your top 5 preferences in order and i'll then tally the results. Hope you can help me out on this one.
Mucho appreciado! :)

More puppy antics

More puppy antics and some styling options for dogs. I have also included the style I developed for Moose toys for their Pawphans and Me Mate ranges

The latest puppy post-

http://puppiesatplay.blogspot.com/

More Puppy Mayhem

Was thinking to myslef this morning how funny it is to see an owner chasing their dog that has got off the leash and is chasing something. Take that amusing situation and place it in the low gravity of the moon and we have our very frustrating astronaut calling out in the vacuum of space as he pursues (in low gravity bouncing slow mo) his moon rover. :)

Dogs: Are they furry grafitti artists?

Observing my dog, Sam marking his turf this morning got me thinking about the similarities between dogs and grafitti artists. Both are territorial and mark their territory. Does this mean if you believe in reincarnation that if yopu are a grafitti artist you will come back as a dog? Or is it vice versa?
I wonder what Sam's tag is? :)

Getting the idea down fast

Often when the idea happens you are never at the drawing board or wacom tablet, so i find it necessary to always carry a pen around and hope there is some drawing surface in the vicinity. In the case of yesterdays sketch, once again the idea came at a time when the drawing board was nmany miles away, and so i scibbled down the idea on the cruddiest bit of scrap paper i could find at hand.
I kinda like look back at these images because they have their own individual charm.