The Holy Family

Christmas windows

Catherine and I decorated the windows for Christmas this year. She did the designs for the reindeer. I think it turned out quite nice. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope whoever is reading this had a great Christmas with friends and family.

This is a revised sketch from one I did a year ago. I hope to do a finished illustration of it within the next day or two.

Blessed Virgin Mary

I did this sketch a year ago and have been wanting to color it. I had intended to do this earlier in Advent, but now that it's almost Christmas, I quickly did it last night. Better late than never!

Flash Animation

Here's a short clip of some animation I have been working on in Flash. I did the pose test on paper and then animated the rest in Flash. In this piece, I was exploring more economical ways to animate for when I don't have the time to do full hand drawn animation. This seemed like a nice compromise and I'll be exploring more of this in the near future.

Charlie & Buster

We got two kittens, Charlie (black nose) and Buster (pink nose). Named after Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Best early Christmas gift ever!

thought

old man

Batgirl!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! This was my first year as an adult going out for it. (Usually Catherine and I throw a party at our apartment.) Here's my homemade costume. The only thing I had to buy was a $5 black shirt and I just painted my own bat symbol on it. I made the utility belt out of duct tape. The mask was an old tank top with holes cut into it. I had Catherine put duct tape all around and she made and attached the ears for me. Pretty cool! :)

Skeleton

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween I'd like to share with you a clay skeleton I have been building at The Drawing Workshop. Before starting this skeleton I have already built all the bones in the human body hollow, and out of tiny clay balls. The purpose of this is to improve my drawing skills and helping me see more three-dimensionaly. I can get more into explaining this method in another post some other day. But for now, here's where I am at in the skeleton.

low budget animation

Here's a low budget music video/advertisement everyone in studio worked on about a month ago. I animated the two main characters from the 2:28 minute mark to the end. It's very low budget animation, but it works well and serves it's purpose. I really wish I would have had the opportunity to really dive into the animation a bit more. But more and more clients these past few years are slashing budgets both in and out of the studio. This was the first spot I have animated directly in Toon Boom Harmony using "puppets". No Flash! Toon Boom has it's advantages, but it's also way more technical and highly involved.

So, that's an example of low budget animation. I should post some other animation samples soon.

Sunday Figure Drawing

Here are some figure drawings from this past Sunday.

They were too large for a scanner, so this was the best I could do with my camera.

drawing

This drawing was done in Photoshop, with my Wacom tablet, based off a statue I saw at the museum yesterday.

fall photo

I LOVE the fall :)

I took this at The Art Institute today

new self portrait

quick self portrait sketch

Rest in peace, Madge

Our ever so sweet, tiny tonkinese cat, Madge, was put to sleep this morning. Madge was by far the sweetest, most loving cat I ever knew. We only had her for a brief two years, but I am blessed for every minute of it. She was always sitting on our laps or trying to lick and nuzzle our faces. At night, she would curl up next to me and often try to use my head as a pillow. She had such a wonderful personality and really made an impression on everyone she met. I will always miss you, Madge! xox

figure drawing

For current students last night at The Drawing Workshop, there was a bittersweet memorial for Margaret which included some figure drawing. What a lovely tribute to her life. She is greatly missed.

I added more shading to these two drawings in Photoshop. These were drawn on newsprint.

On a side note, I feel VERY rusty with figure drawing and am planning on going at least once a month. (haven't done it in about 4 months) I hope to post my progress here.

sketch of a man

yes, I can draw men too. ;)

hopefully I can find time to start sketching and posting more often. hopefully...

prayer

I did this illustration (from an old sketch) in memory of Margaret Eggelston. She was our teacher's assistant at The Drawing Workshop and really helped him run things smoothly. Margaret was also a very gifted artist. She had been battling cancer and finally lost the fight this past Saturday. In times of grieving, all we can do is support each other and pray for her. We're thinking of you Margaret, and may you be in a better place now surrounded by loved ones. Everyone will greatly miss her. :(

Red

did a quick Photoshop illustration off an old sketch

Rained Out

Catherine and I went to the beach for the first time in almost a year and of course it started sprinkling the moment we got to the lake front! I just laid my towel down and enjoyed the beach for 10 minutes anyway. The water felt great! I hope to give it another try today! (It's past 1 am. If I want to go swimming, I'd better get some shut eye!)

Karl Dahl hits festivals

The short animated film we worked on last year, Karl Dahl and the Golden Cube, is hitting festivals! It did quite well at it's premier and will now be showing in three more festivals. It will be playing in LA, Seattle, and Alabama. For info on these screenings, please visit www.ckop.com

charcoal drawing

I can't remember the last time I drew for my own enjoyment! I drew this portrait from memory of a woman who was standing next to me on the train yesterday. It was half done with charcoal on paper and half colored in Photoshop.

rainy day

Today was quite interesting! Our whole neighborhood (well, at least a few blocks of it) woke up to discover that we had no water and were in a midst of a nasty thunderstorm. Catherine and I are working from home, so we had to run off to grab breakfast and use a washroom. My plan was to work from home and keep running off every time we needed a bathroom, but there were too many creepy, winking out of work men hanging around. We came back home soaking wet, from our water logged shoes up to our hips, and decided to make the best of it. We ended up going downtown to Macy's for lunch while we watched the Joffery Ballet practicing across the street. (I also ate tofu for the first time. It was weird.) Then we went to The Art Institute of Chicago where we looked at art and hung out in the members lounge sitting on a plush couch, sipping free coffee, drawing, and listening to a room full of "rich" women discussing everything from world traveling to what they expect out of Heaven. (I love listening in on these private discussions. It's quite entertaining.) A friend met up with us and we saw an exhibit, Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France. The highlight of this bad day turned good was standing in front of a Leonardo da Vinci painting soaking it all in. Then when we got home this evening we had water! What a great day!

Karl Dahl and the Golden Cube

It brings me great pleasure to finally be able to share with you what I had been working on for a good chunk of last year. Karl Dahl and the Golden Cube is a thirteen minute animated film that was written, directed, and produced by the extremely talented and versatile Chris Olsen. The short film is about twin brothers who are small, wooden nutcrackers with their own variety act. Karl and Vincent are scheduled to be the opening act for a giant golden cube, and of course hilarity ensues.

We had a small, but super talented cast and crew for the storyboarding and animation. Catherine and I headed up the animation with Caitlin Lehman and Tom Riffel. Caitlin did a superb job at animating the entire intro, an old black and white newsreel! She has a fun style with lots of humor to her drawings. She then moved from animation to taking over all of the remaining background art. Great job, Caitlin! Tom was fun to work with as well and had a great know how to Flash, a program I was still learning. Catherine, Caitlin, Tom, and I also had our hands in storyboarding for a short while before Jeremy Rumas took on the monumentous task of storyboarding about ten more minutes of the film. Most notably, he did a fantastic job on the car chase!

Greg Whalen breathed life into Vile Tom and the goons, giving them strong, memorable voices. Chris Olsen did the voices of Karl and Vincent. Cherise Silvestri recorded the women's voices. The music was composed by the talented Rich Rankin. I'll always remember the first time I watched an edit of the film with the music put in for the first time. It really transformed it and brought it to life! Eric Cauwels and Rich Lenoss, the sound effect department, also did a great job at bringing the film to life.

The photo posted at the end of this post was taken at the cast and crew screening this past week. It was quite rewarding seeing it projected on a big screen! The world premier of Karl Dahl and the Golden Cube will be at The Little Rock Arkansas Film Festival on June 1st.

Please check out the trailer:




Greg Whalen (voice actor), Rich Rankin (composer), Chris Olsen (writer, producer, director, voice), Catherine Satrun (animator), and Sarah Satrun (animator)


also, be sure to check it on Facebook!

Lady in Pearls

This is a quick illustration I did today inspired by this photo.

transported to the 1930s

at a friend's 1930's 30th birthday party

I love old period clothing. The hats, suits, ties, dresses, hair styles, and makeup are so classy!

quick sketch

here's another I did on the train (with a little Photoshop shading)

Happy Easter! :)

I hope everyone had a great Easter with their families and/or friends!
I did this sketch on the train ride home from spending the day with my parents.
Happy Easter!

Mermaid Kiss- rough drawing

My favorite children's book growing up was Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. This story has always fascinated me, and I appreciate how it doesn't end in a happy fairy tale ending. It feels much more true to life. I did another drawing a few years ago on this. Oh, and here's another link to another one I did too. I'm sure there'll be more eventually. ;)

Charlie Chaplin

Happy 122nd Birthday, Charlie Chaplin! (Saturday April 16th)

"a day without laughter is a day wasted" -Chaplin



Chaplin was a fantastic filmmaker, comedian, and composer. I highly recommend seeing his films on the big screen if possible. Especially if there's live organ music to accompany it. If you live in Chicago, keep an eye out for screenings at The Portage Theater and Music Box Theatre.

I love Chaplin! :)

Amateur Photography

I love taking photos and consider myself an amateur photographer. I don't have any fancy camera, just a simple Kodak point and shoot. Here are a few pics I snapped last weekend:

Spring

I love spring :)

Guardian Angel

It's late so I'm calling this done. I might go back and fix a few things later.

Guardian Angel: Work In Progress

Here's a rough sketch on top of a sketch I did on a post-it.
This is super rough and I'll complete it on a Cintiq. :)

stay tuned for the final version! ;)

Lucky is all CG!

I have been fortunate to have animated on Trix and Lucky Charms commercials for the past five years at Calabash Animation. Sadly, Lucky Charms has made the transition to all CG. That's been a huge hit to my freelance work. Here's the Cartoon Brew article about the transition. I'll keep my thoughts to myself. ;)

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/biz/lucky-the-leprechaun-from-lucky-charms-cereal-transitions-from-cel-animation-to-3-d.html

new knight model sheet

here's an updated version I just did tonight of that knight:

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don't have any new sketches to share for Valentine's Day, so I figured I would share a pinup photo I did at the end of the summer. I guess it's blog worthy. ;) There are plenty more, but this one is my fav. :) I've never had the opportunity to celebrate this "holiday," but for those of you who do, Happy Valentine's Day! Feel blessed to have your sweet-heart and hold them tight! :)

knight