boo! -- 5/5 !!!

Frightful, vacant pumpkin eyes!

Click the top banner to see my entire week of Halloween posts.

Or, if that's too much work, I've got them all archived here... with thumbnails! :

boo! -- 4/5

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boo! -- 3/5

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boo! -- 2/5

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boo! -- 1/5

boo! -- 4/5

Fire. Pumpkin fire. Pumpkin spice? I hear people like that.


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I can trace my fascination with pumpkins to an almost specific time, about this time of year, nearly 21 years ago.

My pre-K teacher had made pumpkin pie. She brought it to school, uncovered it, and showed us. I remember having this fascination mixed with intense dread at the site of that pie. I got myself so worked up over it that I actually threw-up.

And that is a true story.

boo! -- 3/5

Blah! Be afraid of minos giving candy.

Afterthought of the morning : maybe the piece of candy should have been a worm.

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A friend gave me a nice quote about this. He said he really enjoys my drawings of "hairy, agitated beasts performing very precise tasks."

- H. Benjamin Kammer

boo! -- 2/5

The second in my series of five very scary posts.

Enjoy!

boo! -- 1/5

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I'll be delivering one monster a day until the big day so check back to see the new installments.

Make no mistake, they are all very, very scary.

We'll cap off Halloween with a special 8 panel story. Huge, right? No, not really. But it was fun.

Eat some candy and scare your friends!

Blue Goblet Ornaments, now available!

BGO is live and looks really great. I really proud of this set and I hope you will find it useful.

Here's a shot of all the ornaments.


You can check them out here. I'm told there's a 33% discount for the time being so get em while they're hot!

watercolor for a wedding.

An old friend of mine is getting married tomorrow. Congratulations, Ben. Here is your present.

finals / storyboard comparison.

For fun, and because it's a nice break in the hectic schedule of getting this done, here's some comparisons, from the storyboard to final art.

Illustration Friday : "Late"

Hopefully not too late.




Of course not! He's Cody Webster, dang it! He's right on time! Er, it will never be too late for him. Because he'll always make it. Yup. That's it.

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This is some final art for the third commercial in the Cody Webster saga.

If you like, you can see the previous two commercials and get a little teaser of the third here. Or just click on my top banner. It's the post right before this one.

Or, if you're into having more options, you can visit Cody in his natural habitat over at Worthwhile.com

You can check out the hot little flash banner of Cody and see his commercials there too.


* Essentially Cody represents the clients of Worthwhile. They are awesome, they are heroic, but sometimes they need a helping hand. Cody himself gets into scrapes that are just over his head, that's where Worthwhile steps in and gives him a boost.

Cody's stories are an amalgamation of all sort of over the top spy genre-type things.

Cody III - storyboards.

*Note: Facebook viewers, you'll have to hit "view original post" at the bottom to see the imbeded YouTube videos.

You know Cody Webster.



And who could ever forget part II ?



Well. You knew it had to be coming. The third and final installment in the Cody Webster saga.

Behold, some storyboards. This final installment plays on a couple themes established in the first spot but events unfold a little more unexpectedly this time around.

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The Cody Webster shorts have been an interesting thing. They're always obliged to be completed quickly and they've been a tremendous learning experience for me, both in storyboarding and economy of creation. Meaning that, with a limited budget, what can I do within those parameters to get the most out of the art and the time.

I boarded the entire (as it stands 2 minutes! that'll have to be edited) thing yesterday, start to finish in 8 hours. Almost 200 storyboards, colored, and I put together the animatic with a scratch track and sound effects.

I enjoy getting a solid chunk of time to see a project (or part of project) completed in one sitting. It's probably because I'm lazy and played video games a lot.

I like to do things in one (no matter how long) sitting. Like when I needed to beat Sonic 2 one afternoon as a kid. I hate that Metropolis Zone.



And so you know, I didn't make this video. I just found it.

Blue Goblet Ornaments.

Dooley is at it again! And this time with ornaments. Like Christmas ornaments, you may ask. No, it's not even November. More like font ornaments! With more curls and less of a likelihood to shatter if they fall on the floor.

Something like three years ago he came to us with the idea of making my "Blue Goblet" handwriting into a font. You can check it out following the link below.


The font has since been spotted in the making of documentaries for Henry Selick's (of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame) new animated film, Coraline.

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Keep your eyes open for an upcoming "Blue Goblet Ornaments" font.

I've been drawing a lot of curls and things and we've ended up with a nice collection. I believe these will find a place of honor among your more decorative fonts.


I'll keep you posted and let you know when they arrive.

Cheers!

"hello sorry"

I made a special piece for those of you who have made a stop to this lonely outpost these last few days, or weeks, I guess.

I'm in the middle of a fairly gargantuan personal project at home and I'll be updating on that in the coming days and weeks.

Work at work has been exceptionally busy as well. I've had the privilege to be involved in some pretty fun projects recently and they are, by nature, time-consuming.

So, for those of you stopping by, thank you. I hope you'll be pleased with what's coming down the line.

Cory

Dearth.

That's right. Dearth. Not death, dearth. Almost as bad but a lot more fixable.

There has been a dearth of posts and for that I am sad. However! It's for a good cause. I've got a few work related projects that I'm looking forward to posting about as well as personal projects.

So! Hang in there. And remember -- dearth means not forever.

In other news, by request of the entire continent of France, the "Night Watcher" now has the gift of flight. He's wing-ed now.


Also, unrelatedly, I'd like to direct you over to Justin's blog. He took many trips this past summer and wrote about a few of his experiences.

"The bears would then run from campsite to campsite to repeat the scene again and again. They spread chaos and terror the whole night long. I kept imagining a bear stumbling over me by accident, getting caught up in my bag and then shredding everything in a 20 foot radius in a blind panic. I didn't fall asleep once. "

"...The bear would freak out, seeing stars and eagles and bacon, and in a frenzy, pummel me and my pointless sleeping bag into the earth."

And his new site is up. It looks really great.


Have fun.

Illustration Friday : "Sugary"

This is a re-post from a week ago. Follow this link to see photographs of the painting process, if you like.

I mean wouldn't apples become caramelized or something like that? That would be pretty sugary I imagine. Or maybe they'd just burn. I'm not sure.

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I liked this idea from a few days ago and wanted to paint it.

It's also been a while since I've had the time to do just an honest to goodness watercolor.

The painting is on a stray sheet of Fabriano I found in the corner.

Happy Fall.