Tara McPherson @ Kid Robot Pirate Store NYC

A quick morning post to point you to a few pictures I took last night from the NYC Kid Robot Pirate Shop.  Tara McPherson was putting the finishing touches on a giant Dunny figurine she started painting last Friday.  Using only acrylics, the finish has a clean appearance with some visible brushstrokes that keep it in that "hand-made" realm.  She then applies several clear varnish coats for sealing and protecting the finish.  Definitely head down to the store if you're in town to see this up close in person.

SketchBot Character

I had been wanting to design a character that combined my love of drawing and my obsession with toy robots. The simplicity of a bold silhouette with a single eye kept creeping into my sketchbook, and thus, SketchBot was born!



The seed for this character was planted about 9 years ago. I had been playing around with this concept during my tenure at Blue Sky Studios and did a little animation to test out their robust radiosity renderer. Just goes to show that good ideas never die out, they just take some time to ferment!

Joe Ledbetter @ Kid Robot Pirate Store

I'm a huge fan of Joe's and was excited to meet him for the first time tonight at his signing. The line moved relatively quickly, and we made it thru twice to get stuff signed. Joe and I briefly talked about animation, his upcoming trip to Japan, and the possibility of some sort of collaboration with me doing a 3d animation test of one of his characters. Who knows?! We'll see what the future holds... ;)

More pictures up on Flickr.

'Bucky' WIP

Here's a another WIP before I head over to the Kid Robot Pirate Store for the Joe Ledbetter Tiger Dunny signing in about an hour!

Toober Shaded

A quick, vector shaded version of Toober. Thought I'd try Illustrator's gradient mesh tool as opposed to painting the volumes in Photoshop like I typically do.

Toober

Been doodling this tubular character for the past few days now.  Think it's about time to give him a full-up 3d treatment next.

Look what washed up on the beach

Day 5 - Last Walk On The Beach

Originally uploaded by sketchguy

Came across this Portuguese Man O' War during our last stroll on the beach in Playa del Carmen before returning to NY last Tuesday. Many more pictures from Chichen-Itsa and Tulum can be found in the "Riviera Maya" photo set up on my Flickr page.

Weekend Art Openings at My Plastic Heart and Jonathan Levine Gallery

For the 2nd week in a row, Jonlyn and I attended a few really nice art openings.

Friday night was a joint show by Krista Huot and Parskid at My Plastic Heart.  Both artists have really unique characters, and their respective worlds crossed over nicely in the few collaborative paintings that accompanied their own pieces.

Saturday night, Jonathan Levine Gallery hosted two incredible shows, Tara McPherson's "Lost Constellations" and Lori Earley's "Fade to Gray."  Definitely try to view these up close before the show ends.  Especially exciting to see were the fiberglass sculpts of Tara's skull flower and "Mr. Wiggles" characters.

NYC Toy Fair

On Sunday, Kidlew and I hit Javitz Center for the 2008 NYC Toy Fair. This was my first time attending. Now, i've been going to Siggraph for 20 years and have been to NYCC once, however, this convention is HUGE. Easily occupied both levels of Javitz Center.


The Uglydoll booth was one of the most fun designs on the show floor.


Kidlew looks on as David Horvath tags his sketchbook. Despite having major jet-lag, David was very generous chatting with us at length about his experiences in the toy industry. His main piece of advice - get insurance. If some kid chokes on a piece of your toy, the courts don't acknowledge anything "designer toy" and you could be sued and ruined.


The "Urban Bazaar" downstairs was the place to check out some of the latest offerings in the vinyl world. It was here where I met Matt Doughty of Onell Design and William Vaughan of Tofu the Vegan Zombie fame. Both were great sources of information and really nice guys to talk with.


Near the end of the day we bumped into artist Ron English. Another really nice guy to talk with. I told him I got to see his triptych at the 'Beyond The Cel' show at the Mesa Arts Center over the holiday break, and he told me he and his family just returned from a trip there last week for the end of the exhibit and to be part of a small toy workshop.

Since I'm not really involved with the buying or licensing of toys, I pretty much stuck to the few booths that were of particular interest and gleaned some information into the workings of the toy industry. Got some great feedback on my character designs and will be seeing more of the vinyl manufacturers at New York Comic Con in April.

More pictures up on Flickr.

Additional websites to visit:

MINDstyle
kidlew
Dark Horse Comics

'Friends With You' at Yoyamart

This past Saturday, February 16th, Jonlyn and I accompanied Kidlew and Annie to Yoyamart for the Friends With You signing. Jonlyn got the last "The Boy" plushie just in time for Sam and Arturo to sign.

More pics up at Flickr.