God ... please let it end.

Developement for Clifford the Big Red dog feature. Sorry they are just xeroxs but N lost the originals and I never got proper copies of them. I think this witch shrinks them and this witch who has this pet badger .... ok I'm stopping now. It deserved to die ok.




A T-Rex design for some cartoon that didn't get made.



What was Obelix exhaling , got turned into a burp.



A pretty horrid cat design. Was for some series, said they wanted is softer and cuter (yes I actually did a design for it and I think it got used). Who knows or cares . This version never went past the really rough stage.



Did this for a friend who ran an RC car body company. Very Power Puff Girl's only in 1985. He got all bugged because he thought it was too kid market and he was trying to sell to adults because REMOTE CONTROL CARS ARE FOR SERIOUS ADULTS. Yeah, whatever, in the trash.



Ok, this was during my Tissa David worship days ( which should end any time around my death ) . A note to a friend in Ottawa using Raggedy Andy as me. Ok, I am pathetic. I know it was around 1980 because it says I'm working at Canimage. I remember Ol Colin Baker coming to my desk when I was animating the famous Fred Yabba Dabba Doo, ripping my drawing off the pegs and yelling something about me making it too full. It was though, glorious. Cel counts , remember those ? I F'ng love this business ! Memories , like the corners of my mind , what's too painful to remember .... oh screw it.

Super K

My impression of an early Superman done for All American Bill Kroyers birthday. Note the stars and words are done with White Out. I think I was addicted to White Out. My assistants would often have to try and draw over the stuff. Oh and it's opaque under an animation table light :( Sorry folks.

Strawberry Years

One of the first series I did at Nelvana was Strawberry Shortcake. And I was the lead on Strawberry. Her head was massive. Anyway this is a poster I did for the Halloween party. It got reproduced in B&W but I did it in color.Prisma and pantone. Imbalanced and kind of weak but it was perfect for it's time. We were making a massive 18 dollars a foot in those days.

More from the BOX

The Sharpie Tootsworth Award. Ahhhh, , the halceone days ! I used to give awards out for the most devoted assistant . The one who spent endlesshours doing insane overtime for little pay.



Another early rough submission for Kroyers Arrow.



I loved the old Mad superhero parodies. I was always drawing things like Batman. Here he wipes out Robin while tossing the batarang.



This was a scribble I did on a Hunchback rough up in the corner . Esmeralda reveals her secret. I think I called it the Crying Dame.

Hi Folks!

Hmm, apologies for the lack of blogness of late but I have been crazy busy. Which is unusual because I'm just doing my own work. I'll try to get back in there and post some more Falk stuff but there is one more in the post of Falkness worship called "Dog Boots".

Now for those who came here to laugh at me and make themselves feel better about their own work here are a couple more of mine. This first is a frame from a film I started a few years back called "Creep" based on the Radiohead song . I started it because I loved just trying to do virtual inks . Like water colors I love the lack of control. This was done with a mouse by the way.



The next is of Wendy . I would often call on her for a sensitive critique of my work because she loved me I could count on her honesty .



The last is a cartoon I did for Jeff Johnsons birthday when he was doing George . Jeff, like all eccentric animators , has a fetish for mechanical things. In this case the Toyota Land Cruiser. I tried to combine the moments.

Smore Arrow

Just couple of my drawings more from Arrow (courtesy of the James as well ) . Zombie (was designed by Wendy) and Arrow about to punch the zombie in the face.

Something ... fishy.

Got these from James McC, thanks James . Ears are burning apparently :) I did some tags for this thing years ago. It is the first and only time I had been accused of being a pornographer . Standards and Practice , the reichstag censorship unit that used to oppress and remove all intelligence from TV saw this promo I did of this sexy FISH and rejected it, saying her buttocks movement was too suggestive. So they had the studio remove her hip sway completely . I had nothing to do with it and was insulted they even suggested it. A pornographer, ME ???? Oh, and it is too bad they were looking at her buttocks because had they looked at her hand they would have noticed the way she was stroking the F. Too late now.

Graham Falk

Enough of my crappola. It is a Sunday night and while going through "the box" I came across a pile of drawings I really love. Some of you may know Graham Falk, some of you may not but you might have seen some of his work like Untalkative Bunny. A quiet and kind person humor springs from his fingertips at will. I have a rather large collection I will post from time to time but I thought this was a good first start. This he did many many years ago and is kind of legendary among animators . It's called "The Seven Ages of an Animator".

I can't help it, I have to post more Grahams. This is Graham looking over Dave Netherys shoulder in shock at his brilliance . The thing to note is Graham drew himself looking kind of old here, he was only in his 20's but he was trying to make the point there were all these talented youngsters . He was fascinated by other artists and in awe of talent and always felt he was somehow behind. Falk has this unique gift that is incomparable.

Ok , last one for today, it would be easy to post twenty more. Of special interest are the Uncle Limbo's or the Tea Bag experiments (yes that is correct, tea bags). Graham collected things he found of interest. Occasionally I would toss bad drawings away in the trash and one day I found some (what I consider bad drawings of mine at his desk). I said " For gods sake don't take the bad ones Graham" ! He took it to heart and drew this "The Animators right to Privacy " declaration. Drawing himself as this disgusting rat clutching his heart and swearing on the holy bible. Yeah he turned it around on me and now I felt bad for saying anything. I love the rat, it's so filthy looking.


Ok, just a few more and I can stop. Uncle Limbo's Pal .



Graham was always trying stuff. I think he heard about using teabags as media ( you thought it was another kind of teabag, no) Some dogs colored with teabags.


Ok and the very last one. People would compliment him on his cartoons but this was his response. Typical Graham.



More from the king of cartoons. Dog Boots.

High on Suess

Ok, this is from development I did for the N . Few people know that Green Ham, The Cat In the Hat and the Grinch were on the table there to do long, long, long before Opie even thought of it. It led to a trailer I got to animate for The Grinch. Worth a peak. These were trying to translate the books directly.

Stupid Production Cartoons.

Those of you who know us know Wendy animation directed/designed the Ewoks series at N with Charlie Bonifascio. I was originally going to do the animated opening (Clive and I boarded it ) but they ran out of money and decided to cut the opening from the series. During her time running it I taunted her mercilessly , it is where she got the nickname Wendor from Endor , close friends still call her that. Anyway I was always doing crappy cartons about it. Here's one. Awful , I know.

Me and my .....

Arrow. When Kroyers were doing the Arrow trailer ,the worlds most famous never seen animation trailer, we were all submitting designs. I found this among my Arrow submissions , scanned it and dumped some tones on it. It's not the final but it's in that vein ( I have a bunch of these). Later if I can gather them altogether I have my layout/storyboards from it. Pretty much all the scenes Wendy and I worked on I did the set ups for from the boards they sent. Was fun working on the trailer.

The Murder of Puffy. A Confession.

Back on Rock and Rule they had this idea to give Mok a dog. The dog was to be in the sequence where Mok is sending the boys off all drugged up and lobotomized at the bus station. It was to be an insane purebred named Puffy .To counterpoint Moks droll and quiet self confidence Puffy was to be subtext of what Mok was underneath , insane. I loved the initial design (Robins) and actually animated a couple scenes of him but it quickly became apparent that the dog was not only distracting but actually STEALING the audience attention so you would get to the end an only remember that there was this totally f'd up dog hopping all over. I begged Clive to let me drop it. not asked, begged. He finally agreed out of being harassed I think. So there you go, it's my fault. Totally mine, I killed Puffy.

Obelix on drugs !

Ob gets slipped drugs in a peace pipe. He inhales the entire pipe and passes out. The waking scene he originally exhaled what he had sucked in the night before but in the end they copped out and added a burp to my animation. Still most likely the only time he was totally stoned though he did not enjoy it.

Model sheets on speed.

I boarded this section of this Asterix film and I picked Chris Sauve in Ottawa to animate it. We never had a design so Uderzo went into his drawer of drawings and sent us a single drawing to run by. Not quite an animation model so I did a superfast rotation and sent it with the scenes. Chris is brilliant and he did a great job. Sadly in final check at the main studio they screwed up the paint separations still the animation turned out excellent.

Did you just call me "broad " ??????

One of the three Asterix features I worked on. The violence about to begin. James clean up again.

Thrashing.

From a sports film I did for the talented Dave Thrasher years ago. I have no idea what it looks like now.

A Croc and a poptart.

This is from the box of memories in honor of Open Season and those who have dangerous pets. A scribble of a kid giving a croc a poptart. I think it was draw like somebody else day.

Success or failure ? Would you like one lump or two ?

Every once in a while you do something you like and the vehicle it is in bombs mightily. Then again you do something you hated and it gets adored . It's that twisty set of values called "audience taste ". Fucile and I went to the Disney archives years ago and looked at Sleeping Beauty drawings. What strikes me now is I didn't care what film those drawings were in, I lusted for them. SB is not one of my favorite Disney films, not by a long shot because I don't think it is their best storytelling. Frankly, halfway through I get kind of bored. Oddly , Dumbo/Lady and the Tramp are absolutely my faves . Why ? A lot of the wiggly drawing in Dumbo and it was not wacked by the perfectionism that ended up Disney yet it still moves me more than any other . Leading to the conclusion that art may be great for arts sake but never for film. This character was voiced by the brilliant Peter OToole. Some totally rough thumbnails.

From the suckomatic...

A commercial I did for Quik, the liquid sugar drink that makes kids fat. I think there were birds flying around his head, he gets crushed by something, I can't remember. The most powerful and brilliant James McCrimmon clean up.

Reflections of a berry.

I found this drawing, I think kind of a rebellion from drawing cute Strawberry Shortcake for a long time :) Written on it was this:
"From my desk came a smell that I could only guess was a bunch of rotten berries. Sweet , penetrating and overpowering. Then in a blink she was there ! Pink death and her horrible cat Cujo !"