Illustrator Wanted

Here ye! Here ye! The Great & Mighty King of Jingaling is looking for an illustrator to create some nice, Christmas-y cover art for his annual ADVENTure in Carols collection. Let's hear it from the King's own mouth (er...keyboard):

I'm looking for an artist to do the cover for this year's ADVENTure in Carols collection over at FaLaLaLaLa.com.

This will be the fourth annual collection of Christmas music goodness. I did the cover for the first collection. But the past two years have seen the beautiful work of Steve Mack and Ward Jenkins, who have added their immeasurable talents to the projects.

This is not a paid job. It's a labor of Christmas love. So if you have a flair for retro holiday style, pass me an email or message.

I can't wait to see the great cover that will grace this year's collection.

Thanks,

Brad
King of Jingaling

I've mentioned FaLaLaLaLa.com before on this post. I talked about making my cover HERE. I really enjoyed doing it. I know that the pro bono thing doesn't sit too well with some of you out there in illustration-land, but Brad's not making a penny off the ADVENTure series anyway. I did it, and I don't regret it at all. A great guy, Brad just does this because he loves sharing his massive collection of Christmas song oddities. Contact Brad here if you're interested. Looking forward to see what this year's ADVENTure cover looks like!

Inside UPA

I wrote the following review for Drawn!, but decided to post it here, with a few added words because I think the book's worth it. Amid and Tee's hard work should not go unnoticed.



"When I die, I don't want to go to Heaven, I want to go to UPA." –Warner Bros. director Friz Freleng

Inside UPA is the brainchild of Amid Amidi, who's amazing Cartoon Modern (previously) was a triumph, earning the Theatre Library Association's award for 2006 Best Book about Film, Television and Radio. That's quite an honor. With his new book, Amid approaches the subject matter in an entirely different manner. Whereas "Cartoon Modern" was all about the art of animation in the 50's, "Inside UPA" is completely devoid of art. It's all photographs. Ah, but what a goldmine these photographs have proven to be.

"Inside UPA" offers us a rare peek inside one of the most innovative animation studios of all time. Holding the book in my hands, I couldn't help but sense a connection between the book and the studio itself. Just like the studio, "Inside UPA" is diminutive in size (64 pages, measuring 7.5" x 8.7" with a soft cover with French flaps) but what it provides the reader is monumental. Within the walls of UPA a legacy was formed that shook the foundation of traditional animation thinking at the time. Here, within the pages of "Inside UPA", we are able to look upon the faces that formed that legacy.

I've seen a great deal of photos taken at studios at that time and practically all of them were for publicity sake, with animators posed and staged as if they were part of the decor. Most of the photos presented here in "Inside UPA" eschew such pretentiousness. It was obvious to me that in some of the photos the subjects were very aware of the photographer, but even in some of those shots, the director, animator or background artist seemed comfortable with the environment. Amid tells us that there was a sense of great pride working at the studio, and you can tell after thumbing through this book. The artists are shown working, creating, thinking, discussing, all within the cleanly designed walls of the studio, a perfect specimen of midcentury modern architecture at the time (now razed), designed by architect John Lautner.

UPA has been such an enigma for me because practically all the names that are usually associated with the studio (Bobe Cannon, Zach Schwartz, David Hilberman, Steven Bostustow, John Hubley, to name a few) were just that: names. Here, Amid, along with the help of Tee Bostustow and others, finally gives us a chance to place faces with the names. There are a great deal of pages that show the employees of UPA hard at work, but I also enjoyed the ones where they were shown unwinding and just hanging out. We get to see Steven Bostustow go over a Paul Julian background from "Tell Tale Heart" with director Ted Parmelee. We see director Pete Burness share a laugh with Mr. Magoo voice Jim Backus. We peek in on designer Charleen Peterson and background painter/designer Sam Clayberger as they are knee-deep in work. And in one of my favorite shots, we see director John Hubley sketching dancer Olga Lunick for reference on "Rooty Toot Toot." The book provides us the opportunity to sit in on story and staff meetings, impromptu discussions, even parties and dinners.

Right at the heart of the book, there is a full page shot of the entire staff, circa 1950. The opposite page is blank, save for this quote by background painter and production manager Herb Kynn:

"Everyone [at UPA in the early years] had respect for the other person. Everyone was relaxed, and free to contribute, and there was a great warmth and compatibility, which generated this enthusiasm, which ended up on the screen."

"Inside UPA" gives us a chance to see that enthusiasm up close and personal.

All proceeds of the book go to production of the feature documentary, UPA: Magoo, McBoing Boing & Modern Art. The book is published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. Fifty of these copies come with a bookplate signed by UPA veterans who are still alive. It also includes a six-page filmography compiled by UPA biographer, Adam Abraham, which lists not only UPA's theatricals and TV shows, but also industrials and commercials.

More links:
Inside UPA on Cartoon Brew (with a couple of spreads from the book)
UPA exhibit at MoMA 1955

Here it is

This is my painting for the upcoming ICONS: A Day of the Dead Group Show at Lunar Boy Gallery.

I don't know what to call it. It's mixed media with gouache, india ink, a couple of cut up vintage magazine ads, an illustration from an old pamphlet on how to throw a successful party, gel medium and oil sticks all on some old print of a landscape that was in the frame I bought at a thrift store.

I'm not expecting to sell it. I mean, if it doesn't get sold, I don't mind. I'm just glad I got it done and that I participated in the show. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did!

Hope to see you there on Saturday. If you can't make it to Astoria, don't worry. We'll still talk bad about you.

Abundant Linkage

It's been a while since the last Abundant Linkage, huh? Well, here goes:



Oh. Yes. Being a late 70's runner, this warms the cockles of my heart like nothing else: Nike Vintage. To quote the site:

...We've revisited our original styles and crafted them to look 30 years old–fresh out of the box. And it's all there, almost to the stitch. 1970s-grade nylon. Weird Swooshes. Aged laces. Weathered foam. And, of course, that velvety suede-like suede.

I'm partial to the Daybreak, since my Dad had a pair. The color choices presented here are new–they only had one look back in the day as far as I remember: tan with a bright orange swoosh (which, incidentally, I don't see available on the site...weird). Now I know what I want for my birthday. (It's coming up, in case you want to know...*hint hint*...)

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I'll talk more about this book soon.

I started up (yet) another Flickr group, Vintage Science (hmmm...I'm detecting a theme here). Mainly because I was trying to find some old science book-type stuff on Flickr and noticed that there wasn't one place to feature them all. Behold, another Flickr group! Taking a nod from fellow vintage-lover Paula Wirth's excellent group series (see Vintage Cookbooks, Vintage Advertising, and Vintage Drugstores, to name a few), I decided to start a group featuring all those oh-so-dated science books that we were forced to study and learn in grade school. Looking for 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's science books, as well as children's books that had a science theme to 'em (like space, astronomy, physics, anatomy, etc.). Join in on the fun!

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Inspiring artists:


I'm in love with the artwork of Matte Stephens. I mentioned him on Drawn! and I'll mention him here. He's that good. Go directly to his Etsy shop and buy one of his prints. You won't be sorry. Another reason to love Matte's work is that he's a big fan of midcentury modern design. He even started up a blog devoted to it: Modern Design 901. Love love.


Robert Hardgrave (aka Farmer Bob) paints with authority. His freeflowing landscapes are something to behold; I'm sure they're even more impressive up close and in person. Check his gallery and his Flickr.


Currently enjoying the work of Italian illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli. Fun characters with nice linework. I'm glad to see that she's crossed the threshold from paper and/or computer screen into brick and mortar walls. She just recently finished her first wall! She collaborated with a friend and it looks great. Be sure to check her Flickr while you're at it.


Click to read. And laugh.

Hilarious. Do yourself a favor and go back and read 'em all. Drawn by Scott Campbell. Love his watercolor work combined with his use of irregular line and fun character designs. Recently featured in Geek Monthly.


Scott recently was one of the contributing artists to Hickee, an on-going comic series featuring indie comic artists, headed up by fellow LAIKA-ian, Graham Annable. If you're not familiar with Graham's work, you're in for a treat. The amount of personality he's able to get out of the subtlest of looks is amazing. Mostly in the eyes. (Check his Grickle Things blog.) I can see why Henry Selick grabbed him to work as storyboard artist on CORALINE. Wonderful stuff.

A big, fat post featuring LAIKA, PDX and NW artists is coming soon. To coincide with my updated blogroll. (Sorry it's taking me longer than expected. I keep finding new links! So sue me.)

ICONS: A show at Lunar Boy Gallery

Flyer artwork by Ben Adams. Ben is selling t-shirts for the show with this design. Contact him if you want one.

As mentioned previously, the reason for visiting Astoria was to drop off a painting for an upcoming show at Lunar Boy Gallery. This will be my very first official gallery showing! (My senior show back in '95 doesn't count.) Words cannot express how I feel about this. One of my goals since moving to Portland was to get back into painting and get involved with a show somehow. Luckily, fellow LAIKA-ian Ben Adams, along with his cohort Ben Burch, organized the show with a Dia De Los Muertos theme. Lots of LAIKA artists are representing the studio, along with many others. Here's all the info that you need to know:

ICONS: A Day of the DEAD Group Show
Saturday, November 10th
5 - 9 PM
Lunar Boy Gallery
1133 Commercial Street
Astoria, Oregon 97103
503.325.1566

From an email sent to me via the gallery:

This show will feature paintings, drawings, mixed media, sculpture, pottery and video works - all created especially for our Dia De Los Muertos theme.

The line up for the show includes artists from all over the country including a host of favorite Lunar Boy regulars in addition to a strong showing of new regional talent:

Ben Adams, Mark Atomos-Pilon, Mike Bell, Chris Bivins, Ben Burch, Tony Candelaria, Stef Choi, Robin Davey, Brian Demeter, Don Frank, Madoka Ito, Ward Jenkins, Edward Juan, Max Kauffman, Danielle Lamberti, Santino Lascano, Mike Lewis, Katherine Reka O'Connell, Brett Superstar, Wilson Swaim, Tim Tanner, Vicki Tanner , Jane Thanner, Thomas Webb, Ulana Zahajkewycz

I'm so excited I could just piddle in me chair. Hope to see you all there this Saturday! I promise I'll clean up after myself.

I might post a teaser of my painting before the event. How's that sound?

Three is the magic number.

Well, would you look at that....The Ward-O-Matic turned three yesterday. That's like, 37 in blog years. I think.



To celebrate, I took the kids to Astoria, OR, for the day. Well, actually, I had to drop off a painting for an upcoming show at the Lunar Boy Gallery, which is a pretty cool gallery in this pretty cool little marine town in the northwestern-most part of Oregon. Right at the mouth of the Columbia River. Quite an impressive village with some quaint old buildings and a massive bridge that spans the river over into Washington. I took Ava & Ezra because the wife has been incredibly sick for the past 5 days. She needed some more rest so I thought, hey, I'll just take the kids on a road trip. We had a blast. It was fun checking out a new town with some beautiful vistas. The kids are always up for an adventure.







Speaking of adventure, The Goonies was shot here! Had to visit the house, of course. You know you love it.


Check the Flickr for more Astoria pics.

More about the show coming up....

My Unavoidable Halloween Post

Here's to a Happy Halloween! Ava drew this in the computer on Noggin's site last year for Halloween.

Belt out your best witch's cackle right now.

Pirates are the Big Thing this year at the Jenkins household. Although Ezra keeps changing his mind. First it was pirate, then Spider-Man, then robot, then skeleton, then back to Spider-Man, then pirate....you get the picture. I tried to convince him to be a 'robot pirate' but that just confused him all the more. Although I do have to say that that's not a bad idea for a costume. I might have to try it out myself....



Vintage magazine image from the collection of Glen Mullaly. Check out his artwork, too! Great artist. Glen is a constant contributor to The Retro Kid.

Don't forget to check out my former identities: Ghosts of Halloween Past. Mom found that one photo of me with that funny bunny outfit when I was one, but it's now deep in the confines of all my stuff from the Big Move. I promise I'll post it when I find it.

My Obligatory Nightmare Before Christmas Post: Yes, I love this movie. Here, I remind you of said love and then point you to my two-part discourse on the film:
Nightmare Before Christmas (Part 1)
Nightmare Before Christmas (Part 2)

And lastly, I want to wish Ollie Johnston, the last surviving member of Disney's Nine Old Men, a very happy birthday. He's a youthful 95!

Connection Vertigo

Having a blog has offered my friends and family the best opportunity to keep up with what I've been up to. Although, I realize that there's not much in my updating, plus most of the stuff I write and post about are not in the "hey, this is what I've been up to lately" sort of vein. There are some interesting anecdotes to be found here and there, but not enough for a regular reader to expect on a continuing basis. Posting about my life here seems sort of odd to me, even though, yes, this is a blog and blogs are supposed to be repositories for intriguing and interesting life stories. Or are they? Blogs are what you make them and here, well, anything goes.

Obviously, there are other options to stay connected with loved ones. It's practically a sin NOT have a myspace account, right? Well, I never wanted one. An ugly, UGLY website that means practically nothing to me. (Look, I'm not even going to link it. Take that, myspace!) Ugly in the sense of visuals, audio and navigation. I know that having a myspace page has become the hottest thing to do this day and age -- it's great for musicians to connect with their fanbase (even that's been tainted by some groups hiring an internet lackey to hook up programs that automatically "friend" people out there -- a Web 2.0 loophole, I guess) -- but the site is glaringly cumbersome and fraught with spam comments, ads and irritating fake accounts from "girls" who "saw my icon and thought I was cute but can't seem to figure this all out, can you help me?" Yeah, right. I'm not stupid, people. I have a myspace page up, but don't bother friending me. I probably won't update it because, really, what am I going to do with it? I only started it up so I could grab the "Wardomatic" name and cybersquat until I find it necessary not to do so.

Recently, two of my friends (real friends, not myspace friends) sent me invites to start up a Facebook account. Skeptical at first, I'm still trying to figure out if it's a worthy application. I can see why it's so big with students and campuses -- started up by college students, there's some sort of lackadaisical collegiate "what's up? what's goin' on?" attitude I get from the site's interface. It's a good way (and at times fun) to see what your pals are doing, but really, in the long run...is it worth it? Well, Facebook has its share of pros and cons -- 100x aesthetically better than myspace, if you ask me, with its clean design and structure. I like that. All the crazy applications gets incredibly annoying, however. Why would I want to "share a virtual beer" with anyone in cyberspace? It's one step away from Second Life, if you ask me. And I'm not down with that. I do have to say that Facebook has enabled me to find classmates I've lost track of through the years. I'm more than likely to check up on my buddies through this site than on any other community-based site, to be quite honest.

As mentioned earlier, I signed up on Channel Frederator RAW, the "social networking community for Channel Frederator." I'm enjoying the simple layout of the site, with the occasional updates from other members. I like that you can delete these updates in your profile if they're irritating you. Even though I probably won't update my profile and engage in too many conversations on the forums here, I think RAW has proven to be another successful diversion from my already-busy day. Bonus: finding fellow Portlanders that I was not aware of before joining. Another bonus: my fellow co-hort in LAIKA crime, Eric Weise is up in it, too. That makes two thirds of LAIKA/house's 2D directors trolling around here.

Truth be told, the best way to get in contact with me is to email me from my profile page, or send a message through my Flickr. I'm addicted to Flickr, in case you haven't noticed. Contact me, tell me what you think of my blog, my art, my graffiti, my pics, anything. It might be a while before I respond, but I'll do my best. And please, by all means, don't take it personally if I don't get back to you right away. Being a director for a top animation production company requires a lot of my time. That, and having two kids will pretty much tap me of any free time during the day. (I sleep at night, in case you're wondering.)

UPDATE: I knew I forgot a few sites. LinkedIn is another one of those "connection" sites where I'm having a hard time trying to figure out if it's worth being a part of or not. The only thing that LinkedIn seems to be good for is accumulating "links" or people that you're connected with through businesses and former colleagues. Supposedly this is worth something in the workplace world out there, but has anyone gotten a job because of their LinkedIn account? If so, I'd like to hear about it.

Of course, how could I forget YouTube? If you're down with low-fi video quality, then this is the place for you. Even with the crappy quality, Andrea and I never get tired of watching Jim Gaffigan clips. It's like we're watching our own network, which is exactly what the people at YouTube want. Don't expect me to find the time to actually favorite clips. There are a few that I've favorited, but that's about it. Don't have enough time to search videos all day.

My Mom's 16 Magazine Collection

My Mom was a big fan of The Beatles, right at the height of their popularity, from 1964 to 1966. (Remember, she wrote this previously.) She had a big collection of teeny-bop magazines that featured all the big hot movie, tv and music hearthrobs at the time. She would only buy the ones that had anything to do with The Beatles, most importantly Paul. She was a big fan of Paul.



Growing up, I remember digging these 16 Magazines out of the closet and checking out all the covers, studying in detail all the fun and kooky cartoon activity going on. Big source of influence for me right here, folks. Loved how all the run-of-the-mill press photos were transformed into brand new scenarios by ingenious positioning and pasting. I really admired the artist who worked on these covers -- I could tell that they had to work with only what was available, and that inspired me.











Check out the entire set HERE.

(Oh, and if you like more of this type of stuff, then The Retro Teen is your bag, baby.)

Mom had some other publications in her collection, mostly one-shot deals that were basically 'special issues' from 16 Magazine or Photoplay. Here's one specializing in the Great Debate of 1964: Who's better -- The Dave Clark 5 or The Beatles? Oh, the world must know!



This next one is my favorite. It's my Mom's notebook that has been stuffed with newspaper clippings on the Fab Four. The band played one of their last live shows in Atlanta in 1965 and my Mom was there. There's lots of clippings about that event in here:


Thanks, Mom, for being a teenager and being so passionate over four mop-tops from Britain. And thanks for keeping these fun & silly magazines around the house as a souvenir so that they may become a big influence on my creative upbringing. You never know what will influence young, budding artists.

Disney vs. Disney

Photo of Mickey & Friend via Didier Ghez's excellent Disney History.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was reading Neal Gabler's biography on Walt Disney, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. It took me nearly 3 months because the book is a beast, not to mention it was so hard for me to eek any sort of time out of my busy schedule in order to read it. The book has caused quite a stir among animators and historians in regards to how Gabler portrays Disney, so of course this piqued my interest. What piqued my interest even further was the fact that one of said historians was Michael Barrier, who in fact recently wrote his own biography of Walt Disney: The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. Being a frequent reader of Barrier's blog/site, I was made very aware of his thoughts and opinions about Gabler's book. Let's put it this way: he has a few problems with it. And he doesn't hold back.

Reading his posts and others' comments on various blogs and sites, I decided to try out something. I decided to first read Gabler's bio on Disney and then read Barrier's. Maybe do a compare & contrast and offer my thoughts on both books. I might even conduct an interview with Barrier himself, to get his thoughts on writing a biography of a figure so central to the animation industry past and present; one that's so mired in curiosity and controversy.

Anyway, just thought I'd clue you in on all this. I'm currently in the middle of Barrier's book now and I can say that honestly, it's an entirely different book from Gabler's. Stay tuned.

Barrier's previous book is Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age, a massive tome that practically took over 25 years to write, the fruit of over 200 interviews with animation artists and creators. I highly recommend this book to those who crave to know more about how animation got started and how it flourished during the Golden Age.

Hey, you can help me out by clicking and ordering here:

Ava Thursday: Barbie's Museum

Ava's not the biggest fan of Barbie -- she moves from one interest to the next with the faintest of breezes -- but she does have several Barbie branded items. One of these is this large coloring and activity book. In it, Barbie goes to the art museum and here, you'll see, they ask for the child to draw what Barbie sees at the museum.

Ava drew an interesting Egyptian themed painting on the wall, and an equally interesting "modern" sculpture over to the left.

Let's take a closer look at the painting, shall we?


Dig the "Walk Like An Egyptian" poses there. Also dig the details on the sarcophagus. (Yes, I said 'sarcophagus'.)


A closer look at Ava's 'modern' sculpture over on the left of the page.


Getting even closer, we see some sort of creature (?) projecting up on the wall "Never Ever Again." Okay. I'll just leave it at that.


Is it a spiderweb? A lens of some sort? I dunno, but I like it. It says: "The Light Begins."

I like how my daughter's mind works when it comes to her version of what a museum is about -- a little bit of history with the Egyptian elements, and a little bit of art with the abstract sculpture. About the other items on the sculpture -- What could they be? Video projection? Talk balloons? Maybe, maybe not. I'm at a loss with that one.

But if there's anything that I've gleaned from looking at Ava's drawings and artwork throughout the years is that it's best not to ask. Just let the art speak for itself.

He's watching me...

True story:

I was sitting in our car reading a book waiting for Andrea and Ava while they were shopping on Alberta Street about a month ago. The book I was reading was Neal Gabler's biography on Walt Disney. (I'll explain later.) As I was reading, I had a strange feeling that someone was watching me so I looked over to my left, where there was a coffeehouse. Hmmm....nothing.

Or was there?



Upon closer inspection, there was someone watching me!



What are the odds that I would be sitting in a car reading a biography of the man who just so happened to have a huge portrait painted of him hanging up in the coffeehouse that's across the street from me? In Portland, of all places?

It was very strange.

andrea sketch

Drawn from this photobooth strip.

I know that she'll be embarrassed by this attention, but I don't care. My wife is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. And I adore her with all my heart.

white is so boring

Couldn't agree more, buddy.

Found on the side of a local middle school.

Fred & Me

Guess who stopped by the studio yesterday: Fred Seibert of Frederator. We met briefly back in June during PLATFORM, but the club that we were at was so loud that we weren't able to conduct a feasible conversation. Either that, or my freakishly wild beard got in the way. Fred came by to talk about his career and did a Q&A session afterwards. Open and outspoken, Fred was a hoot to listen to. Afterwards, he practically put a gun to my head, forcing me to sign up on Channel Frederator RAW, an online animation community. (Not like I've got enough internet stuff going on, right?) Ah, that Fred -- he's so persuasive!

One thing that I thought was interesting was that Fred mentioned having a blog was like having his own "newspaper." You know, that's pretty much what blogging is: an online newspaper with readers. Although, I'd like to add that blogging for me is more like a personal newspaper and magazine combination. With no deadlines. (Which is just fine for me!)

Great to finally talk, Fred! Hope to see ya again soon.

Be sure to check out Dan Meth's hilarious series, The Meth Minute 39. Simple Flash animation, but doable for me because of the timing and humor. And no, RUSH is not heavy metal. Sorry, Dan.

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Oh, and a big THANKS for everyone who's emailed me with their linky links. I plan on tackling my template code this weekend, so look out for that. I really appreciate the response. I'm hoping that this'll help other NW artists out there stay connected. It's amazing to realize just how much talent is out here.