STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING I HAVE AN AMAZING IDEA!

... let's all go watch a movie about fucking owls.

pictured above: owls.

Finally -- a movie that really corners the market for those who love owls and the color treatment of Lord of the Rings.  Let's all congratulate the team on making everything look awkwardly-realistic.  Kids fucking LOVE feather textures, people.  I remember when I was growing up watching Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings thinking to myself, "Y'know what?  I don't really believe Bugs Bunny could exist in our own physical reality.  THIS IS ALL FAKE!"  I really had to struggle with that disconnect in life until I was about 14-years-old.  Thank you, Space Jam.*
I apologize for the randomness of this rant but I just don't understand how this movie made it into theaters.  I should mention that I'm completely uneducated on the whole subject of Legend of the Guardians.  I'm assuming it came from children's literature since I can't imagine someone pitching this to a studio as an original idea ("Guys! Owls you guys!"), but at the same time who really cares?  If you had the power of sophisticated CGI to create any imagery you could possibly imagine, what would compell you to make it this?

... an owl wearing a helmet, everybody.

It's a movie about owls doing things that more interesting animals or creatures could be doing... like dragons or dinosaurs or hell, what they did back in my day.  I think I'm a better man for being ignorant towards this movie.  I mean, c'mon... the owls of ga'hoole?  So on top of spending $15 to watch a movie about owls, the movie poster alludes to the fact that I'll also have to put up with an hour-and-a-half's worth of some owl language that somebody made up peppered with owl-puns.

You know what I think of when I think of owls?  This.

At least in five years' time all the CGI will look like crap.


(because chances are it always does)




* for the record I was also too cynical in my youth to ever watch Space Jam in its entirety.  Le sigh.

On the Business of Stiffness

Even though I was brought up in the school of hand-drawn traditional animation, my drawing style has always been rather consistently stiff and rigid.  Everything's sitting in place and/or have very straight structural angles.  If you look at some of the old drawings on my website, you'll see 'em all over the place:

Stiff!

Stiff!

Stiff!

It especially comes out when directly compared to superior illustrators, like with my good friend Tim Haldeen.  During our downtime at a music video shoot, we kept ourselves entertained by doodling all over the rear of the set.

Mark on the left.  Tim on the right.

I still like what I drew, but Tim's perspective and line work suggest much more depth and structure than what I had to offer.  Sure, I threw some shading and a roll or two on the neck but if these drawings suddenly came to life, I have a much clearer mental image of Tim's character turning to look at me as opposed to mine.  We did this back at the beginning of the summer and it really got me thinking about the way I draw for the first time in years.  It's so easy to just keep coasting on what you know and I think I've gotten a bit lazy with improving my style.  It has barely changed since college and it needs a good kick in the ass.  I'm not saying that I'm going to overhaul it completely, but it'd be very beneficial to both my drawing and my animation to add more and more principles.
Yesterday during a staff meeting I got into some more advanced posing with a doodle which led to the more fleshed-out doodle below it.

loosely based on Jesse Laz

They're still super incomplete but I think they're a step in the right direction.  If I know what's good for me you should be seeing more of this in my future blog posts.

From the Sketchbook P.4

Here are a few images I sketched up while on break last week...

This could double as a self-portrait for me when I've been working too much.  I think I might take this design and flesh it out a bit more later on down the road.

This is actually a bit older & unfinished (even by my standards!) but when some friends were looking through my sketchbook they seemed to enjoy it.  They said it looked like a weird cross-section of a dude's face.  It's something I may explore later as well...

On my flight to the Twin Cities there was a woman who didn't sit down for 90% of the trip.  She kept doing leg exercises and pacing up and down the aisle and it was pretty awkward.  She reminded me of an older strung-out hippy with an eating disorder and I can only assume that she owned three cats minimum.  When the pilot would come on over the loudspeaker she'd stop and strike the pose above.

Here I tried to illustrate a friend's facial expression... I think it's a little too stiff though, I gotta work on that!

I thought I'd revisit the naked-man-animal theme I got into towards the tail-end of college.  I think a hamster is a good way to go but I don't think he's exaggerated enough.  I'll do additional drawings down the road and maybe get something colored soon.

From the Sketchbook P.3

For those of you who've known me for a few years, you probably know that I've never really had much interest in drawing attractive women.  My philosophy always was that there's enough sexy freakishly-boobed women lining the aisles of every comic book shop and videogame stores already, so why should I try to add my two cents to an over-saturated market?

Well I still really haven't changed my thinking in that regard, but I do realize the benefit of drawing attractive women: it's out of my comfort zone and studying the structure and curves of their faces and bodies can only make me a better artist, right?  I took out a few catalogues and magazines we had laying around the office and did a few quick sketches.  They're not anatomically correct by any means; I intentionally distorted their proportions but I don't think it was enough to be a 'proper' caricature... they're somewhere eerily in the middle.  'Not sure if I like 'em or not but check 'em out!  I'm sure there will be more to come down the road...

This was the first drawing I did with some exaggerated proportions.

Less exaggerated here but I kept the eyes and mouth biggish.  'Probably the better looking one out of the bunch.

This one looks awkwardly like a friend of mine but I think it'd creep her out if I showed her.

The first lesson I learned about drawing attractive women is to NOT make the nose & mouth look like I did above.  The cheek action probably doesn't help either.

Kevin Rudolf "Rainfall" Music Video

As I mentioned earlier, I spent most of July working on this project at Lifelong Friendship Society as animation director.  With the time and budget we had, there were only a few instances where we could afford to go back and fix mistakes.  On a good day an animation station could crank out 3 seconds in a 10-hour shift, so keep in mind that everything changed animators' hands about that often when you watch it.  It all made for a very memorable experience, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  The music isn't my cup of tea, but then again I can't drink music now can I?

I just got back from vacation with loads of new sketches and such, hopefully I'll get 'em all posted by the end of the week!

If the link above doesn't work, feel free to check it out on the YOUTUBEZ.

From the Sketchbook P.2

More sketches!

Inspired by Elizabeth Taylor... not sure why.

This girl's face is actually a caricature of a male animator I work with, not sure why I added an off-target boob-poke.

Recently I've been trying to branch out with how I draw angles on the face... still not quite there yet.

This was a self-portrait I drew at LaGuardia airport in the midst of traveling turmoil and somewhere in the middle of my work binge of July 2010. Seriously I don't even know where that month went... it was exhausting.

From the Sketchbook P.1

It has been far too long since I've posted new sketches. If there's one thing I need to really work on it's developing more of these into full-fledged colored illustrations, but I hope you enjoy them regardless of their sketchdom!

Regardless of what my critics may think, I am capable of drawing things that aren't immediately disturbing.

I think I somehow channeled Joe Biden's smile into the face on the left without realizing it until I was done.

The guy on the left was loosely based on Peter Jennings, the guy on the right was loosely based on a skinned tomato.

Is there a more thankless job than the snowman maker?

... more to come tomorrow!

FaceMaster: Tim Heidecker

I've already confessed to my admiration of Tim & Eric in past posts, but one thing I really love about the show is Tim Heidecker's facial expressions in various scenes. All of them beg to be drawn, immediately.

Aren't some people's faces so inspirational? I may make this a regular thing...

Hats off to Yeezy and Graham Holleezy

If you haven't seen the director's cut of Kanye West's new single, POWER, check it out below!

Kanye West POWER by Marco Brambilla (Director's Cut) from ARTJAIL on Vimeo.

Ohhh... Kanye.

My friend and bowling partner Graham Holly was a lead flame artist on this project. His company ArtJail throw some pretty intensely fun art openings. Check 'em out!

Animatin' for AIDS

My girlfriend IM'd this to me earlier today calling it a 'cute AIDS animation.' Needless to say I was intrigued...

.... and for those of you who are fans of The Triplets of Belleville, check THIS out.