JACKED!

Before I came to Pixar I was an outgoing, confident, happy-go-lucky sort.  But the daily abuse & ritual humiliation has made me a shadow of my former self. I wish I could say it was an honour to be ridiculed by such talented folk but it's too painful.  Bastards!

The' sharpest knife' award goes to Mr Josh Cooley

John Hoffman gets the runner-up prize

Of course you know this means war . . . 

Around San Francisco

Through the first weeks of January I was host to my old pal Matt Cruickshank who was in town on an illustration gig.  Showing him around we sketched in almost every neighbourhood and sunk beers in all of them!  Here are the results of our intrepid expeditions on the streets of San Francisco . . .

Our first stop on New Year's Eve was Haight Ashbury . . .

Attracting too much attention from the pimps,pushers,winos and bums we retreated inside the nearest pub and drew the freaky folk from the relative safety of a bay window with a good view of the by-passers.

Sleepy Noe Valley has a different kind of vibe to the Haight-more push-chairs less crack addicts!

We climbed up to Bernal Heights for a 360 degree view of the city.

North Beach has a nice, laid-back feel too with of course the obligatory eccentrics.

Pier 39 is still home to the stinky, barking, bellowing sea-lion colony.  The gaggle of tourists watching them were even rowdier!

View of the city across the East Bay with the Bay Bridge passing through Treasure Island and the Oakland port cranes on the left.

See Crookies marvellous sketches over on his blog

Spiffing Tales

The Aardman anthology comic-book to which I contributed a strip is now available to order! Check out the  TALES OF THE SPIFFING blog here for details.  It's rammed with highly amusing nonsense by Aardman artists past and present with a very dandy cover by Aard director Luis Cook.

BUY IT NOW!

Sketchcrawl SF 2

I kinda missed out on the last sketchcrawl back in October due to the APE convention but last weekend I was fully committed to the Japantown crawl. I hooked up with Jamie and Julia before winding down over coffee with Enrico and Ronnie.  We spent a pleasurable hour after the event looking through all the other crawlers' sketchbooks.  Great turn out this time - around 60 people I'm told.

I literally warmed up in the glorious winter sunshine with a sketch of the pagoda.  The subject seemed suited to a vertical format and more 'Eastern' style of drawing. . . I was drawing into the sun which threw everything into stark silhouette.

I was fascinated by the people and signs of Japantown.

Jamie and I discovered this building with a curious mix of Eastern and Western architectural details.

Dr Sketchy's 2

This week we had the first Dr Sketchy's session of the year with model Quicksilvababe in costume as comicbook heroines BlackCat and Zatanna Zatara! Many SF artist geeks' dreams were fulfilled that night . . .

I went along with pin-up girl specialist Josh Cooley-he busted out perfectly formed comicbook babes that put my efforts to shame.  Here's one I stole from him while he was at the bar.

See the rest of Josh's drawings on his blog here

Comic!

Here it is! The first Aardman anthology comic-book.  Featuring artwork by Aardman artists past & present 'Tales of The Spiffing' is available for pre-order at the project blog

The book has a British theme - my contribution is based on a real-life incident that occurred over the summer in North Wales. 81 year old Bert Forking rowed out into high seas to retrieve his neighbour's wheelie bin.  Picked up by life-boat rescue the story made the national press.

First pass thumbnails

Second pass layout thumbnails

Character development roughs

Merry Christmas from San Francisco!

Here is the first batch of drawings made around town since I moved to this great city.  I have lots more exploring to do over the holidays so more sketches to come in the New Year . . . Happy Holidays folks!

• 1  The East Bay Bridge viewed from Emeryville (the 'Eye of Sauron visible in back)

• 2 Coit Tower & telegraph Hill from Embarcadero

• 3 Francis Ford Coppola's building at the lower end of Columbus Ave.

• 4 Haight Ashbury where the pungent aroma of weed still hangs in the air!

• 5 Lombard St.

• 6 In the Mission District

• 6 Sleepy Noe Valley-my neighbourhood!

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• 8 Chinatown Gate

• 9 Grant Ave.

• 10 Intersection of Columbus & Broadway where the Beats meet the Red Light.  Apparently 'The Condor' is the site of America's first Topless Dance . . . a site of historical significance. I drew this from the top deck of 'Vesuvio' where Jack Kerouac used to drink.

Quickies

More quick studies from Gesture Drawing Class at work.  Every week we get a great model-always someone different and they never fail to strike inspiring poses.

• 1 (30 seconds)

• 2 (2 minute poses)

• 3 (2 minute poses)

• 4 (30 seconds)

• 5 (2 minute poses)

I've long wanted to attend a Dr. Sketchy's drawing session; a worldwide collective of burlesque drawing workshops where you can draw models in interesting attire, listen to great music and have a beer! Here are the results from Dr. Sketchy's San Francisco -

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• 7

• 8

• 9

• 10

• 11

• 12

At CTN-X last month John Tucker was on hand again modelling for quick poses in the lobby.  I caught a session where he was in his redneck outfit!

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