Inside Villian's Lair

A sketch doctored up with Photoshop. First pass.

The old airport

Maya objects, tweaked with Photoshop. Different context than what I wanted, but it was a good exercise.

hermanbear.com

I'm ready for a trip North!

Sito Speaks at the TAG Computer Lab!

(Artwork by Tom Sito) On Monday April 21, the Animation Guild Computer Lab celebrates its fourth anniversary with a special appearance by Tom Sito!

Tom Sito, President Emeritus of the Animation Guild, will discuss topics ranging from education to how traditional art is being affected by computer technology; and how the employment side of animation is being affected as well. Tom has worked as an animator, storyboard artist and director, along with teaching animation at both UCLA and USC. Tom is also the author of Drawing The Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson, published by University of Kentucky Press.

The evening starts at 7 pm at our building on 4729 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. Sorry, seats are limited to Guild members only. RSVP to lab@animationguild.org (you will receive a reply from roskotron@hotmail.com).

Special thanks to Tom and to Jeff Massie for getting the word out. It should be a great evening.

Cheers!

Ken R.

WMMS Buzzard T-Shirt

Scanning groovy old T-Shirt art. They don't fit anymore, so I'm scanning them for posterity. I wore this shirt when I met Jack Kirby at the Comic Con in San Diego.

(Artwork by David Helton)

Frog & ButterFly

Wacky quick pastel drawing

Here come the Bad Guys

In the second act of my story, the bear is tempted to do real violence against his opponents. This happens after he sees what the humanoids have done to the other creatures.

Another pass

Added a little more detail, trying to harmonize things.

Character color styling

Rough blocking in of color for my characters. John K's article on color kind of has me spooked. Maybe I'm not getting it.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/color-theory-neutral-or-natural-colors.html

Animation Guild Computer Lab - Fantastic Four years!

No, not the superheroes, but the Animation Guild Computer Lab will be in operation four years running now.

I want to thank everyone who supported the place, and everyone who able to make use of the Lab to further their career goals. We'll do our best to keep it chuggin' along.

Many thanks!

Ken R.

Another Old Drawing from the 70's

Don't know when this was done. I drew with much more gusto back then.

Old Xmas drawing found in attic

When did I do this? Middle school? I must have done it in the 1970's. It was inspired by the old Mr. Magoo version of a Christmas carol. I always wanted to do this by scanning something from my parent's house. Now I have the training to use the technology. Thank God for little joys.

Camp Ronald McDonald

Animation Artists volunteer to draw for the kids! Organized by Art Leonardi. This was my only snapshot as I had to leave early. This is to help families with children dealing with cancer. I forget to count my blessings some days.

Animation Guild Holiday Open House poster

Thanks again to all the guest speakers we had for 2007. This poster wasn't as detailed as last year's, but I think it was clearer and easier to read. I'm grateful to everyone who volunteered their time.

Happy New Year group!

KR

Troy!

The dinosaur part of my brain was over-stimulated by this movie...

Goo'night.

Music for Herman Bear

Herman Bear had always been bouncing around inside of my head, but I was having trouble coming up with a setting, and a story arc that would have broader appeal than just doing a black and white comic. "The road to Utopia" inspired me. Todd Rundgren and his band Utopia put out this album in 1980, according to the web. I'm working on an animated trailer. Think of "Pogo Possum" meets "Wizard of Oz", with some Star Wars thrown in. And done in a Disney/Marvel Comics style. Woo-Hoo!

I just remember the songs "The road to Utopia" and sometimes "Caravan" being played quite a bit on WMMS or M 105 back in Cleveland. Ahhh, who says culture doesn't come to the Midwest. Those tunes were always in the back of my head, and they have subtly influenced my story, along with maybe..."Shazzan". Who knows? Maybe Todd Rundgren would let me use them. For a reasonable fee at least.

I was using Stewart Copeland's "Love Lessons" from his "Klark Kent" solo album as a scratch track for the trailer, but I dropped it out because of YouTube's copyright rules. If you know the track I mean, I think it really cooks with my trailer. The Utopia tracks are too long, but the images from the songs sort of relate to my project.

It would be cooler with the music.

Quick n Dirty Halloween

To everyone who wanted my head on a platter, dig in!

Boo!

Dealing with trouble...

How I wish I had a band of heroes to help me deal with all the nut-cases in this world.

This is just a first pass in Photoshop from a quick sketch I did at the coffee-house.

Summer's over...

Time marches on, my sister said there's Christmas stuff in Wal-Mart already.

Ugh.

Women In Animation storyboard pitch nite 9-11-2007

This is not the right way to observe the results of the Bush administration's failures here and abroad, but I'm going to do it anyway. We are still lucky enough to be alive in a world where we have privileges like this:

The Women In Animation storyboard pitch nite was a great experience this summer. I hope to get back there again.

http://wiapitchnight.blogspot.com/2007/08/hot-august-nights.html