The Thought Percolator

Did you guys know about the percolator?
I have a Tumblr , http://en-b.tumblr.com/ where Im posting links and random things I like to think about. Thats probably what this Last Outpost blog always should have been for.

Pink Elephants

Vehicle warmups

Warm ups- Drawing vehicles this week- rad!

Kettenhund

here kette kette kette...

Lil Tug

aww litl tug!

Secret of Kells screening

Late last week I went to a screening of "The Secret of Kells" (trailer), the latest animated feature from director Tomm Moore. The film has won a handful of awards including the audience choice award at the 2009 Annecy, as well as a nomination for best animated feature for the 82nd Academy Awards. It has also been selling out all of its shows here in New York and apparently has made the highest weekend gross ever at the IFC Theater in the West Village. Not bad for an animated film!!
I must say I really liked this movie! It had a marvelous, unusual visual style, lots of flat graphic shapes, lots of textures.
It takes place near by and within the walls of the medieval abbey of Kells. The Abbot's nephew, Bendan, longs to work in the scriptorium with the rest of the monks illustrating illuminations for the abbey's manuscripts, and when a mysterious and talented monk arrives, Brendan attempts to uncover the ancient pagan secrets of Cromm Crúaich that lie outside the walls of the city and ultimately becoming a gifted illuminator himself. Even if it means breaking the wishes of his Uncle the Abbot, who is continually obsessed with the completion of the city walls and the threat of the approaching Northern invaders.
I thought the animations were very fitting, and that the feel and uniqueness of old Ireland really shown through the entire production, which im sure was one of many a goal of the Irish team that developed it.
I really cant recommend this film enough.
The director and comic book illustrator, Tomm Moore kept a really nice blog/journal throughout the entire process called the blog of Kells
Also, here is a nice interview of Tomm on GhibliWorld
I believe there will be a theater release of this movie in the US early March.
This is clearly the best film Ive seen so far the 2010 NYICFF

Sentry sketch

sneak peak of an item from some panels im dabbling in.

Hottarake no Shima – Haruka to Maho no Kagami

Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (trailer)
Last weekend I went and saw the screening the New York International Childrens Film Festival had for Oblivion island, the latest from Japan's legendary Production I.G studio. Although they say its an all 3D movie, its actually a nicely combined 3D props and characters, with a combination of 2D and 3D backgrounds. Its a tricky thing to combine and I think they were really successful in executing it. The main character, Haruka has a nice, luscious Range Murata feel to her, (youve probably seen a lot of his characters on the covers of Udon publishings "Robot" magazine.) She's a feisty, really cute, typical seeming Japanese teen age heroine. She looked a little doll like in the eyes, but for me they really nailed the lips. Its an odd critique for sure, me focusing on the lips, but the attention to detail in the way they looked and were rigged made a huge impression on me- a lot of 3D animated characters lips are neglected, so bravo to you Production I.G for nailing the lips on that character. Her side kick companion Teo was fine, and all the typical villains and thugs, although very formulaic, didnt bother me as much as the mad rush and frantic pace the story took in the last 20 minutes- so much to resolve! So right, could of been edited, but all in all, I really enjoyed this film. I and the mass of very young viewers probably would have enjoyed it even more if it were 20 minutes shorter- an hour and half is a long time for a little kid, and a long time for a not so little kid as well!



Ill be attending quite a few more films at this festival and look forward posting a few of my impressions from each film- next up, the Secret Of Kells.

the Last Outpost

More morning meandering

good morning sketches!

warming up before going into the lab.

Global Warming

non sense sketching

I have no idea what this is beyond a water wheel- just a bit of late night sketching between projects.

New Year, New Box; Alla Prima Pochade!

My Alla Prima Pochade came in the mail the other day- Ben Hagget, an avid plein air painter himself, builds these in his shop, and I must say it's suuper nice. Lots of clever design solutions. The palette setup is a little different than what Im used to, but hopefully having my raw paint and my mixing paint in completely different areas will make my colors at least a little less muddy. The thing I like best is the wet canvas storage in the lid- not that I ever could paint so much, but I think I could store up to 8 wet panels in there if I needed to. Awesome!
Got to the painting workshop really late the other night, but I think the new box setup is gonna work out well.
Check out Ben's site http://allaprimapochade.com
I got the bigger Yellowstone model because I need as much palette space as possible- but all three sizes are amazing bits of craftsmanship. Thanks to JimmyG for referring me to Ben's Alla Prima Pochades!

Same tree, different day

Always better the second time around...!

Story Builders in this months Family Fun

Press! The old mac set is in this months Family Fun.

Kingdom Opener

Here's the title page with sample text for an iphone project Ive been working on with the gang at Imagineers. Excited to see it come together!

Map published in MSW Destinations

My map was picked up and featured with quite a few other lovely maps in this months MSW Destinations.

SW Central Park

Got a quick one in the other night with my painting buddy bajel. I recall it was a mild Fall late afternoon (which is "evening" out here since it gets dark at around 4). Im guessing all these leaves are totally gone by now... :(

Plein Air or Yankees Parade?

Met up with NatelBagel and went and painted the firehouse down the street. Yankees victory parade was close by and lots of revelers were on hand.

SE Corner C Park

Was getting dark and bumped into a painting group at this spot and set up a few trees behind them to try and get a quick one in- they stopped over and said hello- even though I was rushing as fast as possible to get something on my board, I think I showed them all my bad painting habits- not scraping my palette every night, using a brush to mix my colors instead of the knife, etc etc. Slightly embarrassing, but I admit it- I have some horrible habits when it comes to painting, as you can see from my muddy colors...

Not so sunny set

This is officially my 3rd Fall on the East Coast and by far its the longest and most colorful of the past three. Still lots of leaves left...

Genesis Climber Mospeda

"Mospeda Complete Artworks" has been enthusiastically added to the Last Outpost art book review-
...which can easily be found by clicking here.

I found the book I never knew I had always wanted the other day.
Packed full of character sheets, mechanical and interior designs, concepts and backgrounds for both Earth and Invid forces. So much stuff I had never seen before!!!
Awesome book.

Fall magnificence

No shortage of scenes to paint this month...

My 2009 Crush

Its getting towards the end of the year and I figured its time for me to reveal my 2009 crush. And there she is, my rig, the red, sometimes three speed, free spirit. I have been loving this bike all year. Here is the set up along with a detailed shot of my custom, tech, security system. I just lock the whole thing up down on the street no problem.

Im sitting in a car

...through the tues morning parking restriction. There is the Hudson- theres gonna be ice floating by out there soon...

Barn Side

This is the barn sides. Kids! Print this out and fold the paper in half for a taste of story builders. We actually had to cut the roof portion due to some logistic issues, which were actually kind of interesting if your into die cuts and manufacturing.

Story Builders Art

One of two pages of Story Builder art I will post- Just like two sides of a coin- each diecut panle has a different bit of art on each side.

Story Builders!!

Super excited to announce that the Story Builders line of playsets I worked on with the great guys over at Sprig Toys has been released and is out on store shelves! The packaging looks really great and I'm honored to be associated with such a fantastic, smart company like Sprig, "Where kids power the fun!"

Kate Spade Showroom

For the second season in a row, the very lovely and charming ladies at the Kate Spade office asked me to return to paint the latest graphic theme on their showroom wall. I snapped a couple pics of the showroom before all the dress forms and displays were installed. Hopefully I can get a hold of some shots of the completed room and post them soon. I thought their concept of roller coasters and Coney Island fun was very timely.

Kingdom Teaser

I've had the unique opportunity to contribute backgrounds to the fine folks at Imagineer Games on their upcoming iphone project, "Kingdom". Hope to share these on my blog in the near future.

Map of Home

Gads! its been a longtime since I last posted and even longer since Ive been home to SC.
Sigh.

NYC Highline!

Im really excited the highline park is finally open. Lots to see up there-

Wave running

Surf Nazi 2