The current issue of LA Weekly features this faux 1960s airline ad starring Yuki 7! I was super excited to be asked to do a piece inspired by Los Angeles for the newspaper, and immediately envisioned Yuki scampering about town on secret missions wearing the hottest West Coast fashions. Here are my initial sketches (on Kikutowne Stationery):
Then my rough and final layout drawings:
And the quick color study I did before starting the final painting:
I've been working super hard for the past few months on a couple of Yuki projects and am amassing quite a pile of sketches so I figured I'd share a few. Here's a pretty typical sketch page:
And two of the characters I'm developing for a new storyline:
A few months ago this Coke Zero commercial came out and I forgot to blog about it. I worked on this spot with Pete Candeland for Passion Pictures doing color keys, storyboards, and character design. I wasn't involved in the final 3D production so it's pretty fascinating to see how some of my designs were translated. As soon as I get permission I'll post a few of the paintings I did.
At the end of October, Chris and I took a trip to Denmark to teach a Character and Environment Design class at the Animation Workshop in Viborg. It turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience working with an extremely talented and fun group of students. Here's a few photos:
Chris and I toasting after the final student presentation at the end of the week.
Damon, Joakim, and me bowling one night in Viborg.
Elizabeth and I freezing in Copenhagen the week after teaching.
I was really impressed with the students in our class and their dedication to learning and improving themselves each day. I was super proud to see everything they had accomplished by the end of just one week. Here's a few of their websites, which I will update if I'm able to find more:
These are the Gadget Girls, an elite group working out of Yuki's top secret Tokyo headquarters. They coordinate Yuki's missions, handle incoming and outgoing communications, and design her space-age gadgetry.
I might have this available as a print for this weekend's Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, which Chris and I are really looking forward to. We're in the same spot as last year, tables 333 and 334. We'll be stocked with prints, shirts, and copies of the Yuki 7 book, so please come by and visit!
Yuki 7 returns next summer in Looks That Kill! But you can get this poster at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco next month! More details will be announced closer to the convention.
I was trying a lot of things on this poster to evolve my painting style, the biggest of which was being more precise. I tend to rush through my paintings and leave all kinds of gloppy, unfinished detail. So I really took my time on this one and figured out each and every detail, which makes for a more rewarding viewing experience I think.
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be a BG Painter on Genndy Tartakovsky's new show at Cartoon Network, Sym-Bionic Titan! After 3 1/2 years I finally found some full-time work in the animation business. I never expected freelancing to become my day-to-day job, and when it did, I never thought I would survive for more than a year. There were a number of times where I thought I would have to give up, but I never did thanks to my amazing friends and supportive colleagues. During the last year I was finally able to get into a steady groove with both my personal and professional work.
None of this will affect Fleet Street or any of the projects we currently have planned, but I probably won't be taking freelance offers for a while. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this new chapter will go!
Just a quick sketch tonight to play with some ideas that have been bouncing around my head lately. I want to polish Yuki up slightly for her next big adventure...
I'm still astonished and overwhelmingly happy whenever I see someone create their own interpretation of Yuki. I wanted to show off a bunch of Yuki fanart from the last few months that I've either found or has been sent to me...
One of the beautiful drawings Mari did of Elizabeth at Comic-Con!
"The Case of Too Many Diver Shirts", featuring Scott Morse!
If looks could kill!
So that was pretty fun. I feel really lucky to have so many cool friends. I'm already looking forward to next year. I'll be back soon with more art and updates about what I'm working on these days.
Comic-Con is already a distant memory for most of you, so this post might be totally boring, but I say better late than never! As usual it was fun, tiring, inspiring, and overwhelming. Our good friend The DC of Gritbox Photography was there to capture all the action, so let's get rolling!
WEDNESDAY
Here comes trouble! Trevor, Tom, Tirzah, Ada, and Bobby come to the rescue with extra supplies!
It's only 3 days until the San Diego Comic-Con! Chris and I are running around like crazy getting things ready for what will definitely be the best show we've ever done! If you've been to see us in the past 3 years, we want to let you know that we're in a new and bigger location to accomodate for all of our new stuff - Booth 1316. This is where we are on the convention center map:
Here's a preview of what's in store for you at the Fleet Street Booth!
Yuki 7 makes her San Diego debut! We will have copies of our new book, Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7 for sale at Comic-Con for the very first time, along with these other items:
Chris will also be unveiling this beautiful new oversized print of Phileas Fogg and his clocks from "Around the World in 80 Days", as well as an amazing screenprinted poster commissioned by The Decemberists! Here's just a small teaser:
