Tom's Toon Troubles

Back From The Grave!!

2010-05-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

I have been busy with life and stopped blogging as you can tell... Hope to do some re-vamping of my stuff and tell you what I have been doing in the meantime. Also I need to remember how to post things on the blog as well. It will take a while but I hope you interweb peps like it.

He Done Her Wrong: The Great American Novel (With No Words) By Milt Gross

2007-05-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

First off let me apologize to those who like to read my blog and say I have been busy with school work as well as many project that I am going to undertake. Another gem was found at my local library about the really awesome Milt Gross. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr. Gross's work I suggest that you check out JohnK's Blog http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/ as well as www.animationarchive.org for more info. Here is a quick run down of what I know of the man himself. He was a Jewish New Yorker that grew up in the Bronx in 1895 and worked for the New York Journal creating a wonderful zany narrative comic strips throughout his amazing career. Here are some of the strips he made: Phool Phan Phables, Gross Exaggerations, Dave's Delicatessen, Count Screwloose of Tooloose, Babbling Brooks, Otto And Blotto, That's My Pop!, the Banana Oil! strip along with countless others. I hope you enjoy a sample of the cool things that are in this novel with no words. Sorry for the crude scans I need to figure out how to fix that in the future.

Cool Things Comin' To This Here Blog!

2007-05-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

I feel really bad that I have not posted for a while as one of my avid reader has pointed out. Being the sort of geek that I am, I am going to add some nice touches to this particular Blog. Call it a Blog makeover if you will. Recently I am taking a Portfolio Fundamentals class that will add real "class" to how I am seen in the professional world of animation. There might be some posts that will show things that I am working on for my classes. So stay tuned and keep your hopes up!

Not only that I will at some time be posting cool doodles in this particular post.

Happy Birthday To ME!!!

2007-05-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Long time since I had a birthday....at home that is. Had a lot of friends that were close by come over. That was yesterday though is when I had the celebration. Birthday's usually get screwed up for me and that is what I did today and yesterday. For some reason I seem to kill the mood of the party. It might have to do with my personality and too much Dos Equis with Smirnoff. Ooopss!! You didn't hear that from me. The spirit of giving is a good thing so here are some cool pictures for everyone to enjoy:

Here is something that I have been meaning to give to my main group of inspirationers:
The colors themselves look better on the paper and I will try to work on a better version. Let's see in the comments if you know who is who.

Happy Belated B-Day Daffy!!

2007-04-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

Apparently it was Daffy's B-Day yesterday since I was reading J.E. Daniel's Blog http://jedaniels-adventures.blogspot.com/

Check it out he has some cool things there. Here is something John K drew for me at Comic-Con 06'. Hope you eat your heart out John! Once again Happy 70th Birthday Daffy!

I am having trouble trying to post the picture and will try at another time. Sorry!

Look What I Found Blogging!

2007-04-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

There are many links on the side of my blog that are linked to many talented individuals with which I have great admirations for one such individual is the amazing story spinner Eddie Fitzgerald. You might know him as one of the many talented story men on the Ren and Stimpy series also I believe that he made a short by the name of Paranoid Worm or something to that effect. Sorry if I screwed that one up Uncle Eddie. His vast knowledge on the topic of art is most commendable not to mention a great read. In his latest post he has posted some pictures to use for as reference. The one posted looks in a way like me. I could be streching it but hey that's what animators do right? Here is a link to Uncle Eddie's blog http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.com/

I highly doubt that you will ever see a photograph of me on this site since I don't like pictures much. I think drawing speak louder than words. And no I am not grotesque like this:

Illustration Friday

2007-04-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

I know this is probably to late to be accepted but I am going to try getting this posted on http://www.illustrationfriday.com/index.php
The topic was green, I don't know who comes up with this stuff I just draw.

Sad But True I Feel It Too

2007-04-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

Not to diss 3D animation but Disney is not what it used to be. I really reading about the days when they were pencil pushers breathing real life into the animation.*sigh* I can't say that I have seen the film myself but from what I have heard it sounds kind of mediocre. What I am trying to say is bring 2D back and with the improvement of all the technology we have today I am sure it would look fabulous. Check out more of Jessica Plummer's work (the artist who drew the one panel strip) on her blog http://jessicaplummer.blogspot.com/

Cool DVDs Are Coming Soon!

2007-04-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

I am just so excited! No someone is not going to wax my back and trim my nose hairs....A bunch of cool exciting DVDs are coming out this year which include Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (included in my previous post in case you are wondering), Popeye, Woody The Woodpecker, and a host of others that might make appearances for the first time(possibly Song Of The South on VHS legal of course). Surfing the net as I normally do I found on retrojunk.com this intro clip to an 80s cartoon called Popeye and Son. Here is the http://retrojunk.com/details_tvshows/1180-popeye-and-son/ I hope you enjoy!

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

2007-04-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

Had A Bad Day....Again....

2007-04-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

True story that actually happened to me today. I was going to go to school in S.F., Frisco, San Fran, you know San Fransisco when after the only class of the day I have to take the elevator down. Being the smart cookie I think I am I figure the stairs are much faster and even suggest it to a young lovely blond on the way to the stairs. Getting to school I have to wake up at 5AM drive to Millbrae and take the BART to the Civic Center. Going through the door I find that this is a very old designed staircase. CLICK! SLAM! I am trapped... not the good kind the kind that a normal person with bad constitution would faint. Thinking fast I try to pull out some Macgyver training skills. Using my cell phone I dial into action...Beep...Boop...Eink...Trying to call someone to answer my plea. To make a long story short I got out OK but am pissed at the engineer who made the fire escape very much. If I have time I will try to post pics of the dangerous adventure the best I can. Until next time folks keep reading!

If you are wondering about the images they were found on the net.

I Haven't Posted For A While....I Am Sorry

2007-03-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

I never thought that posting things on the interweb could be so time consuming! Then again everything is in one way or the other. My purpose for this blog was to get me into animating, drawing, and learning about art. I think I just need some help is all with how I am going to keep up with this thing. I try not to write articles that other animation web sites talk about but I think I am going to have to break that rule once in a while. I am sure that I have mentioned the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog before but I will say it again you have to check it out! If I were in Los Angles I would definitely visit the animation archive in Burbank. There are some cool videos that are posted on the animation archive and an interview with Eldon Dedini a comic illustrator that is famous for his Playboy strips with "Satyr & Nymph". I will be posting some of that stuff and old advertisements that are nicely illustrated. I apologize in advance for not asking the blog owners if I could use them for my blog. Forgive and forget I suppose.

A Cool Article I Found A While Back

2007-03-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is an article that I found while looking through a magazine called Wired. The issue is the December 2006 issue and the article in it is about an exhibition where an artist made accurate skeletal structures of famous cartoon characters. It's pretty awesome to see unfortunately I think the exhibition has been over for a while. Too bad it would have been cool to see the rest of the skeletons. I sent this article to a certain site I like to read with no response. They just seem to be too busy but what do I know anyways.

Treasure Hunt At The Library

2007-03-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

I was going to a local library when I found a very peculiar looking book entitled Walt Disney and Other Assorted Characters: An Unauthorized Account of the Early Years as Disney's by Jack Kinney. The cover at the time made me nervous but once I started reading and flipping through the book itself I was transported to another place where the mouse had not become a big giant at the animation game. It was so hard to put done the book with the great illustrations done by Jack Kinney himself. Who is Jack Kinney you ask? Well he was a native Utahan who joined Disney on Feb. 9,1931 worked his way up to be a story man and eventually director. Some of his screen credits include The Brave Little Tailor (1938), Dumbo (1940), Der Fuehrer's Face (1943), Motormania (1950), The Lonesome Chipmunks (1954) and others as well. From 1958-1960s he has worked in his own animation company Jack Kinney Productions working on some cartoons like the 60s version of Popeye and The New Three Stooges(1965). He died at 82 of natural causes four years after writing the book I am showing you. After reading the book you will think highly of Jack Kinney. There is a caricature of himself can you find it?

These Are Some Of My Sketches

2007-03-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks for the wait but I am not sure that I can keep up with the demands of day to day life with this blog. I will though do my best to post at least once a week. To prove that I am an artist here are some sketches that I made watching some horror movies. These particular doodles were made from the following movies; Dead Men Walk (1943) starring George Zucco, The Mad Monster (1942) starring George Zucco and Glen Strange, The Giant Gila Monster (1959) starring Don Sullivan, and The Fatal Hour(1940) starring Boris Karloff(the same actor that played the Mummy in the classic black and white Universal Studios Production). The life drawings were from a life drawing class that was $3 every Wednesday at Cogswell College. I was always interested in using white and black charcoal on a tan paper to see how it looks. It turned out OK but I think the scans do little justice to how I see the originals. By the way check out cartoonbrew.com there is an article about a Russian animation director called Fyodor Khitruk that worked on a Russian Winnie the Pooh and it is spectacular! If Woolie Reitherman (One of Disney's Nine Old Men) said that it was better than his you better believe it. There is a video of it posted so check it out yourself, you don't have to take my word for it.

WonderCon 2007

2007-03-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry to break topic on all of you but I must explain the "Wonder" of WonderCon. For those of you unfamiliar with comic book conventions this is a small one held in San Fransisco. It is not just comics it is also popular culture artifacts as well. Since I like a bargain I volunteered for about three hours to get on the convention floor for free by my efforts at volunteering I got a cool Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Siege Tower Troll Design Maquette which is just a head on a stick like a cool paperweight. I had the chance to see the real live Brad Bird host a panel on the upcoming movie Ratatouille. Got to see in the flesh Bruce Timm (Batman the Animated Series, Justice League) which was exciting until I talked to him....no further comment there. I saw Arthur Adams(An extremely talented comic book artist) in person though I didn't talk to him because he was always surrounded by people. Then I saw some more familiar faces that I met before like Maxwell Atoms (The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy, Evil Concarne), Alberto Ruiz (pin-up cartoonist for DRAWN! magazine), Sergio Aragones (MAD magazine cartoonist, Groo the Wanderer, Fastest Pencil in the west), and last but not least a good friend if I say so myself Sean "Cheeks" Galloway (Animation Character Designer and Comic Book Artist). Here is something Cheeks wanted me to post because as an artist sometimes you blow yourself away at what you can do so here it is for all to enjoy.

Children's Book Illustrations Part 3

2007-02-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

Man, things are getting a bit tight but I will keep you up to date. Monday of this week I was invited to a Boy Scouts (Troop 80) meeting to talk about animation. Being the unfortunate procrastinator that I am I basically put a quick power point presentation on a brief history of animation. I put in a lot of Disney names out there but was unable to put the less "famous" studios as well. I showed them my "professional" cartoon colour light box and did a brief explanation on how to animate in 2D. I was going to post some things on Tuesday but the internet LAN is in my sister's room and she was sleeping so now I am posting today. On a different note I think I will discontinue the mystery pic but instead will try to post my own work with explanation. Since nobody likes to post comments apparently or they are too lazy or busy. The first mystery pic is actually suppose to be Tom Baker of the Doctor Who TV series for some reason I become quite fascinated with that show since I never really heard of it before and I am a Science Fiction Geek. On another note what this post is about one is a Disney Golden Book while the other is learn pictures with words book. The Disney Golden book was made in the studio and I am curious if Burny Mattinson made it since I was recently listening to the podcast (there is a link to the side of my profile, go check it out!) In the picture book I found that I learned what a Newel Post is...See if you can figure out what it is. One more thing to top of this post for Best Short Animated Feature The Danish Poet won! This is exciting since there was a presentation at DeAnza Community College where we actually saw in person Torill Kove and another producer if I am not mistaken which I didn't catch her name where we saw the actual movie The Danish Poet. So congratulations Mrs. Kove on a job well done!

Children's Book Illustrations Part 2

2007-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some more really nicely illustrated pictures from the Disney Book's on tape series. I was rather shocked to find that a friend of mine wanted me to speak to his cub scout group on animation. Maybe shocked is not the best word to use I would rather say honored. I am going to have to set up a power point presentation of a brief history of animation. That is going to be quite a challenge but I will do my best. My school workload is slowly catching up with me so I have to focus more on my animation projects for class. It might be a while when I post something new next. This mystery picture should be a snap to figure out it is in red pencil.

Children's Book Illustrations Part 1

2007-02-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a post of some books that I had as a kid. These are wonderful illustrations from Walt Disney's books on tape. Wonderfully illustrated books by Disney artists who unfortunately are unanimous within the book but I am sure that some of these illustrations were drawn by artists like Mary Blair, Dick Kelsey, Burny Mattinson, and others.(Eventually I hope to have posts about those artists) For more information on the topics I would highly recommend John K.(creator of dog and cat duo Ren and Stimpy, there will be a special dedicated post on him later) all kinds of stuff look under the previous posts under November 2006. John explains things better than I do since I have not created a huge success in the animation field,... yet. Hopefully there will be more posts in a row about this sort of material spanning from part one to four. It could be longer. Just for fun I will also post a picture of my own work and in the comments see if you can guess what the picture is.

Mystery Picture:Who is it?

Alphonse Mucha

2007-02-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine introduced me to Alphonse Mucha. A great Czech illustrator during the height of Art Nouveau (basically the 1880-1914). Personally I really love his attention to the finest detail and his thick dark outlines of the figure which is usually a woman. Mucha drew illustrations for popular magazines of the day but he was paid bare minimum for his efforts. Now he is recognized as a saint to illustrators. Well maybe not to some but to me there is a certain class that makes you really appreciate such beauty. I think I am going to need a tissue...

On another note here is an old illustration I did a few years ago coping his work JOB. Didn't have the time to color it and hopefully one day I will be able to do that in possibly photoshop. Nashledanou (Goodbye in Czech).

Walt Disney's Duck Comics

2007-02-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

As long as I could remember I really liked ducks. In the cartoons they were always the under"dogs" in my mind like Donald Duck. I think why I liked ducks was my dad has a big Donald Duck hardcover book with Carl Barks comics in them. Carl Barks was one of those popular character and storyboard artists that worked on the Donald Duck shorts from 1935-1942. Not only that but he gave Donald his own temper (since he was partly deaf at an early age) and the short beak with round body features. Barks contributed to the skating on ice gag in Bambi. Eventually Carl resigned from Disney Nov. 6,1942 to have his own chicken farm. Later on he actually began illustrating Disney comic books. Unfortunately Mr. Barks is no longer alive since he died of leukemia in 2000 at the age of 99. He has left a legend to all those kids who read Disney comics that had Donald duck in them. These are some of the comics that I have currently finished and are worth to check out. By the way I would like to give a shout out to Keefe who is probably the only person reading my blog. Not that it is a bad thing it is just I know it will take a while for me to get noticed that's all.

Animation Book Review

2007-02-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

Just recently I had a chance to finish this book called Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG by Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff. A friend of mine by the name of Bruce gave it to me and I sat down every night and read a little every night.After reading the book I feel a little more confident in doing CG animation. Personally I wanted to do 2D for a living but seeing how popular CG is today well I might just do 2D on my own time. This book is very well rounded for both traditional and CG animators as well as the novice and more experienced animator. A term used in the book that I found to be hilarious is "framef***ing" which is when you have too many key frames of animation in a CG program and are over analyzing the movements. Definitely worth while to read or pick up. Here is a scan of the book cover.

Behind the Blue Genie

2007-02-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow friends! This post is going to be about the amazing Eric Goldberg. Now Mr. Goldberg was born in 1955 in a place called Levittown, Pennsylvania. While a teenager he created an animated short called, For Sale (1974) which won the grand prize in Kodak's Teenage movie awards. From there his career shot off working with the famous Richard Williams (director of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit?) on some of his films and eventually opening his own studio called Pizazz Pictures. Some of his screen credits include Animation Director of Fantasia 2000 in particular the "Carnival of the Animals" and "Rhapsody in Blue," Co-Director of Pocahontas, and last but not least Supervising Animator on the Genie of Aladdin and Phil in Hercules. You can find this info. almost anywhere on the net but I have a great story that goes something like this... When I was studying in San Diego in 2006 I went to a wonderful convention called Comic-Con International. There I had the chance to meet some of the industry's giants like Eric Goldberg. It was at the ASIFA-Hollywood booth where I actually got to see Eric animate a cat get hit by an anvil using proprietary 2D animation software from DreamWorks on a Cintiq (flat computer that you can draw on). To see that cat move in action and how he was just drawing frame from frame it was a sight to see! After he was done I asked him to sign my sketchbook which I will show you at the end of the post. Here's to you Mr. Goldberg for your inspiration! Cheers!

Cartoon Movie Reviewed

2007-02-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

Recently I have become reacquainted with this movie, Cool World. For those of you who have not have had a chance to see it I will tell you a bit more about it. This particular movie was made in 92' during what is known as the second golden age of animation (about 1980s-1990s). Directed by Ralph Bakshi the controversial man who directed the first X-rated cartoon in the U.S. by the name of Fritz the Cat. The movie is suppose to be a rip-off of a more adult kind of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? The synopsis of the film if you are curious is about two dimensions, one is a cartoon world called the Cool World and the other is the "modern day" world in Las Vegas. Looking through the film with a stronger appreciation for the animation the movie was O.K. It is probably better to rent the movie than go get it. Interestingly enough there is a cameo of an animation enthusiast in one of the scenes which is....drum roll please... Stephen Worth the Director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive! To see what Stephen is up to these days I encourage you to check out http://www.animationarchive.org/ for really cool animation and illustration art with interviews. Also one of my favorite teachers from the Art Institute of California-San Diego Jerry Brice worked on the animation for Cool World and taught me the true magic to 2D animation. Toon' in next time for more exciting animation facts! If anybody is reading this I would like to have some constructive critisim on how I can improve this blog. Check out this cool Cool World art from the actual movie. Enjoy!

Welcome To My Blog!

2007-02-18T23:26:00.000-08:00

Hello, fellow animators, cartoonists, illustrators, and comic book artists! This is my first time posting things in a Blog. Being new to this please excuse the learning curve that I have to go through. Tom's Toon Troubles will in time be a place where all artists can come together to talk about...cartoon! Basically any and all animation including fine art, comics and at times what is on my mind. Please sit back, relax, and get yourself a cold one cause here we go!